girls

Thank you, Ann. It’s an honor to be here with you all this morning; thank you for that warm welcome. What a wave of positive energy to start the day…wow!

So, before I visit a new place, before I meet new people, I always do my homework…and everything I read about you guys was pretty amazing:

“…an environment of exceptional trust and respect… highly committed staff…a four-year college enrollment twice the national average for women of color… high expectations…highly supportive… students consider school their second home…”

[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9X3pIX7UoU]]

Barbara Walters (BW): Our next guest is a children’s author, who car pools, and who bakes cookies, and tweets. By the way she also happens to be royalty. It is our pleasure and honour to welcome Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan. Also with respects to other Queens the most beautiful.

HMQ: Oh thank you. That’s very kind of you Barbara.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department, Amman) Keen to follow up on the work undertaken by Madrasati Jordan, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah toured, today, a fair held by one of the Madrasati phase II schools, the Mahes Secondary School for girls.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department- Amman) - Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah made a visit to the Abu Nseir Elementary Coed School and the Safout Secondary School for Girls today.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department- New York) At the "Women in the World" summit held at the Hudson Theatre in New York City yesterday, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan spoke to some of the world’s most powerful women about the importance of educating 600 million girls around the world who are still left on the sidelines, lost in a world where “nonsense prevails.”

When you were a child, did you ever pull the blankets over your head and call down to your parents, "Do I have to go to school today?" I certainly did. And now that I'm a parent, I occasionally hear the phrase too.
Yet, I was fortunate to be able to take my education for granted.

Around the world, over 80 million children never set foot in a classroom.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department, New York) With the fundamental right to education denied to 75 million children worldwide, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, on Monday, urged girls from the Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem in New York to sign up their names in support of the 1GOAL: Education for All initiative launched in partnership with FIFA in the run up to the 2010 World Cup.

The following morning, work began.

Morocco, like Jordan, understands the importance of educating girls. We know that if you get girls into schools and keep them there, you can change the course of a nation, because the benefits ripple through society in the form of healthier families, reduced child and maternal mortality, enhanced economic productivity, and greater protection from HIV/AIDS. 

Light showers overnight meant a cooler morning, a welcome change to the previous evening.  I was grateful; we had a busy day ahead. 

We set off to the Kusum Pahari district, one of Delhi’s most disadvantaged areas, home to some 130,000 people. As we moved through the narrow alleyways, I was greeted with the brightest smiles and most graceful namastes. Between the industriousness of the street barbers, the shopkeepers stacking their shelves and women hanging out washing, there was a real sense of purpose and vibrancy in this little community.  

(As it appeared in the Huffington Post)

Ironic. The peace conference, that brought me to South Africa, has been postponed.

A gathering billed to bring people together... that symbolized the power of dialogue and intercultural understanding... that was to be a medium for solutions to ongoing conflicts around the world has, instead, polarized opinions, fuelled frustration, and caused divisions.