2007

"Thank you Ann, for your kind words… and for all you, and your colleagues at UNICEF, do to make the world a better place for its youngest citizens. 

I am truly honored to accept this role as “Eminent Advocate for Children.” 

It is a fancy title… but I see it as a fundamental job: To do all I can on behalf of child survival and education around the globe. 

Part of that will be to continue my longtime support of UNICEF. Ann, I stand ready to join you whenever and wherever you issue the call. 

When I was first imagining what I would like to say this morning, I had the idea it would be great to start by quoting a Chinese philosopher. I knew it might seem a bit clichéd, but the temptation was hard to resist, when thinking about a culture whose ancient wisdom is so profound.

The biggest challenge was where to begin. So many brilliant scholars to choose from! At last, I settled on a book of quotations by Lau Thawz. And here is the first thing I read:

“He who speaks more is sooner exhausted.”

"Danke schön, Professor Freimuth, for those kind words…and to all your guests and colleagues here today for their generous warmth and hospitality. I am very pleased to be with you all to open this wonderful clinic. 

And I am very pleased to be visiting Cologne for the first time too. The natural beauty of the Rhine, the magnificent spires of the Kölner Dom, and the unusual architecture of Museum Ludvig, attest to a proud and diverse history…making Cologne, as one travel writer said, a “city so good, you’ll want to dab it behind your ears!” 

Recently, I read about the miraculous story of baby Amillia Sonja Taylor who was born safely in a Florida hospital, after only 22 weeks' of gestation. Measuring no longer than a pen, Amillia overcame the odds, to enter the record books as the most premature baby ever to survive.

As a mother of four young children, I know the indescribable joy that the birth of a baby brings...and I can only guess at the relief and happiness that Amillia's parents felt taking her home from the hospital, four months after she was born.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department – Amman) As a strong supporter of advancing educational opportunities for students and teachers in Jordan, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah did not miss out on the opportunity to showcase Jordanian schools and students to the visiting Board Members of the United Nations Foundation.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department – Northern Badia) While the majority of the Kingdom’s schools opened their doors to joyous students earlier this month, many of those doors opened to creeks and crackles of rusted steel and poor infrastructure. As Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah passed through another of these schools, in Sabha, she highlighted the need to focus on providing a better environment for the students.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department – Sweileh) The sounds of creeks and crackles of rusted steel and poor infrastructure at the Khawla Bint Tha’laba Primary School in Sweileh will soon be muffled thanks to a surprise visit by Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, where the Queen announced that she will be adopting the school, along with three others she has recently visited.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Beijing) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah lauded the spirit friendship between Jordan and China and the latter's achievements in education, as she explored, first-hand, a number of educational institutions, on the first day of a four-day working trip to the country, during which she also had the opportunity to look into possible means of co-operation between Jordanian and Chinese educational institutions and women organizations.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Budapest) A prominent advocate for providing equal access to quality education, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah joined Hungarian First Lady Erzsebet Solyom for a visit to Gyermekek Haza, an exemplary school in Budapest that has worked to integrate special needs and disabled students into mainstream education.

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department - Amman) In her continuous efforts to promote original opportunities for the Kingdom's teachers and access to innovation in all classrooms, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah launched the Arab Innovative Teachers Forum. Over 150 teachers from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, the UAE and Tunisia came together to exchange experiences and best practices to learn how to develop a lesson plan using multimedia.