Doha

Travel to Qatar for a meeting with Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al-Missned, the Emir’s second wife.

The visit opened on November 17 with a prize-giving ceremony at the first World Innovation  Summit for Education (WISE).  Organised at the instigation of Her Highness Sheikha Mozah, the evening event at the Doha Sheraton hotel drew more than 1,000 participants and journalists from some 120 countries.  Seated next to her hostess,  Carla Bruni-Sarkozy made the acquaintance of the newly-appointed Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova, who had made this her first official visit abroad.   Bokova used the summit to issue an appeal for « education to be spared the effects of the economic crisis. »  Also attending the ceremony were former French prime minister Edith Cresson, now president of the Les Écoles de la deuxième chance foundation (Second Chance Schools);  Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter; Anthony Salcito, vice-president of Microsoft; photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand; and a host of other business and NGO representatives from around the world.  Other well-known figures such as Kofi Annan sent video messages.  Guests heard a concert given by the Qatar Symphony Orchestra accompanying the oud player Marcel Khalifé. Before that, Sheikha Mozah handed out prizes to six winners chosen from a total of around 400 competitors who submitted projects in the fields of education, sustainable development and innovation. The winners were Sheetal Mehta (India), Vicky Colbert (Colombia), Martin Burt (Paraguay), Joyce Dongotey-Padi (Ghana), Peter Levy (USA) and Delio Morais (Brazil).

On the next morning Carla Bruni-Sarkozy visited the Shafallah centre, accompanied by its president Hassan Ali bin Ali.   Founded in 2006, the centre caters for children with behavioural difficulties, especially children suffering from autism.   In a white-walled room emblazoned with paintings done by the children, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy spent an hour and a half hearing about the centre’s activities.   Named after a wild flower that grows in the Arabian desert,  Shafallah provides a home for some 520 children from their earliest years up until school-leaving.  Looking after them are a similar number of doctors and therapists. The rehabilitation section comprises a games room for psychosensory stimulation, as well as a swimming-pool and a music room.  It is universally recognised that music has a positive influence on developing language and concentration, as well as hearing and movement. A group of youngsters from the centre performed a selection of Qatari and English songs.   She then visited the Shafallah centre’s renowned genetic research service, where in a projet coordinated with the Necker hospital in Paris a team led by Dr El-Shanti is decoding DNA sequences in order to identify the genes responsible for inherited diseases.