Hamdi Abdulaziz
I was born and raised in Muharraq, and my mother pledged our sponsorship, education, and education
My grandmother was keen to teach uncles and was telling us about life in Cairo
Sheikha Hind bint Salman Al Khalifa inherited from her mother, Sheikha Lulwa bint Muhammad Al Khalifa, the passion for volunteering, to serve her community and homeland, so her human and voluntary personality opened and bloomed in a house that was a “gathering point” for volunteer and charitable work at the time, then in the Association for Child Welfare and Motherhood, who is historically leading in women’s work and initiatives that meet the needs of women and childhood, and because it donates in the world of numbers language, It sought to achieve self -financing, while expanding the umbrella of its charitable, educational, educational and development projects.
Sheikha Hind bint Salman Al Khalifa has been the presidency of the association since the end of the nineties, and the presidency of the International Federation of Bahraini Business and Professions since 2012, and her mother had a great human impact on her, as well as seeking knowledge and excellence in the field of volunteering. In her studies at the American University of Beirut, her independent personality, which does not feel any discrimination between men and women, was formed, then she honored her professional life with experiences and experiences, and she accompanied all these successful values and behaviors in the world of volunteering for decades, in order to complete the achievements of the mother, “Sheikha Lulwa Bint Muhammad” and establish new and large successes in Bahraini women’s work, which can be measured financially and morally.
To talk about her memories in the “Sheikha Lulwa House” adjacent to the beach in Muharraq, the values that were raised there, and her educational career in Bahrain and abroad, her voluntary work, her achievements in the Association for Child Welfare and Motherhood and the International Union of Bahraini business owners and professions, its hobby, and the greatest and greatest honor .. Al -Watan had this meeting:
When did Sheikha Hind bint Salman born? Where? What is your arrangement among your brothers?
– “Smile”, usually does not ask a woman about her age! I was born in September 1950, and I was the fourth among seven children, 3 tribes, and three after me, and I was born in the area near the Al -Hidaya Al -Khalifiya School in Muharraq, in a house overlooking the sea, and the lands were wide, the traffic movement is light, playing and starting on the sea and in its water is the title of this early period of my life, which I do not forget.
In the house of “Sheikha Lulwa”, what are the values that are still in your conscience and mind until now?
– In my mother’s house, “Sheikha Lulwa Bint Muhammad”, we had servants, but she took it upon her to raise her children and teach them the values of morals and customs of society, and I learned from her in my childhood to adhere to social relations, respect for others and respect for the precious time, as we had links with parents and school duties.
I was also linked to my grandmother to my mother, “Nila”, and her house was close to us, and my grandmother was a strong belief in the value of education, so her children went to study in Cairo, and she was moving there, and spending the school year with them. I was missing her and rejoicing her back with uncles during the summer vacation, and enjoyed her talk about education and life there, and she always stimulated us to education whenever it came to any opportunity.
We would like to shed light on your educational career before the university?
– Education in Bahrain was mandatory from an early age, and the preparatory “Al -Rawda” entered into the Maryam Bint Imran School, then the American Mission School; Because education in it was in both English and Arabic, and after that I joined the Fatima Al -Zahraa Primary School, then I entered the secondary and directive stage for five years, and that was in Manama High School, and it contained two “literary” classes as “scientific”.
The university stage had memories and lessons. Tell us about it?
– My brothers and the largest of them were a successor in Beirut, and I was registered at the Girls College, and my father, may God have mercy on him, decided to take me there, but I looked to study at the American University like my brother, and my father understood this as my brother Khalifa encouraged me, and I actually joined the same university university, so he was studying “Business” and I chose to specialize in “Anthropology”, after studying a year.
This is a situation that I do not forget. At that early time, I did not feel any discrimination between the girl and the boy, then I entered the stage of self -reliance, managing my life affairs and dealing with difficulties, and I had my own bank account, and I was involved in experiences that refined my personality, until I graduated in 1972.
What about your hobbies? Do you find time for her now?
– The hobbies evolved since my childhood and with age. At a young age, I adore playing, running and popular games such as the “panel” that we used to make with the simplest materials, so we used to take the bone of the chicken legs and wear them clothes, and put on the faces, then I grew up a little, and I was making an integrated house, and I love playing and swimming where we were going out to the resort in the “heresy” And “Raya” where swimming pools.
I grew up and loved the drawing, and this developed into the taste of art, and I could consider me a passionate abyss with the acquisition of artwork. I also love traveling since she was accompanying the mother, Sheikha Lulwa bint Muhammad, members of the association on trips to many countries such as India, Morocco, Syria, Jordan and Turkey, to tourism and get to know cultures and get to know experiences and experiences in women’s work, and these trips are still in place in the association until now.
You have a wealthy experience in professional work, and you graduated in positions .. We would like to introduce readers with it?
– My professional work in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs began in the translation department, and due to my interest in the family and raising the children, the ministry left in the mid -seventies, before I came back as an assistant agent for social affairs in 2000. The work focused in the first period on the translation of international agreements, conferences, research and studies, but in the second stage, the ministry grew up and expanded its departments, to the extent that I opened the phone guide to know all sections, such as childhood, People with disabilities, the elderly, and social centers.
It contributed to the development of social centers by training women on crafts, including sewing, drawing and craft works, and there were seven social centers, and she brought trainers from Turkey and Jordan to train on candles and ceramics, and tried to find a wider look to train women on the letter.
Do you remember the first chapter of the story of volunteer work that accompanies you until this moment?
– I grew up in a house that was a “gathering point” for volunteer work, so we were participating in preparing for charitable markets, and I remember that one of them was a charitable market in my school “Manama”, and I attended and I am the Hala Al -Omran, the natural roses “Al -Muhammadi” and in every basket of one rose that differs from her sister, and they were asking us from where? I say that he is from the “Behairi” orchard, Hussein Yatim.
What about the Association for Child Welfare and Motherhood?
– I opened my eyes to volunteer work in my mother’s house, and I noticed it to develop step by step, so he started education through training on crafts and charitable parties, all the way to establishing leading projects for women and childhood. Then I completed the road with research and development work.
She was associated with the association at the end of the eighties, and after a while I fell ill and we saw that a member of the Board of Directors remain, and the presidency of the association was taken at the end of the nineties, so far.
Frankly, it is said that the association is the second, and it is not the first historical?
– Of course not. The association was an extension of the Ladies Club, which was established in 1953, and the owner of the idea was my grandmother for my mother, may God have mercy on them, while she was in Cairo with the uncles to continue their studies, she was briefed on the experience of the Ladies Club, and she suggested establishing a club in Bahrain with the same name, and indeed the establishment and start of the implementation of charitable activities of Bahraini women, but it was closed after a short period.
The aid, visits, donation and education of Bahraini continued at this early time of women’s work, until the association’s license was approved in 1960, and Sheikha Lulwa and her sisters were among the honorable Sheikhs and the elite of the community of women, in leading the female volunteer work, writing history silently and humbled.
Is there a memory that is still stuck on those early beginnings?
– Yes. My father – may God have mercy on him – was supporting and supporting my mother in volunteer work, and Sheikha Lulwa went to the villages accompanied by a midwife named Umm Jan in the “Beck Ab” car!, To visit the villages and educate women. Then my mother developed projects to train women, serve people with disabilities, working mothers, charitable work, and raise the standard of living for women and their family.
As for popular diplomacy and the service of the country. What do you mean? And when did you start?
– Popular diplomacy means carrying out popular efforts and activities to serve the goals of government diplomacy of the state, and it started early since obtaining a license to collect donations to Egypt during the tripartite aggression in 1956 and the setback 1967, then support projects for Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen and Morocco. In the end of my mother’s presidency of the association, then the subsequent period, we focused on this type of diplomacy with the wives of the ambassadors to introduce them to the Bahraini heritage and the Bahraini people and the reality of female and charitable work, and we are keen to participate with us in all the projects of the Charitable, Women and Heritage Association.
How did Sheikha Lulwa Bint Mohammed developed projects of the Child Welfare Association?
– The vision of Sheikha Lulwa Bint Muhammad was based on establishing projects that meet the development and needs of Bahraini society and women. It was opened at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, then the project expanded in the Bahrain regions after that, and we are preparing to open the kindergarten of Lulwa Bint Mohammed next year 2026.
In 1975, the association established sewing and housekeeping centers, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, and I believe that this project is the nucleus and idea of families producing in Bahrain, as the association was the pioneer in reviving the folklore and Bahraini dress, with celebrations and fashion shows that admired everyone, including the wives of the ambassadors.
As for the Al -Amal Institute for Special Education, it was established by our association in 1977, and it was the first headquarters in front of the castle in Manama, then moved to the large building adjacent to the association 1978, and it was developed and opened under the auspices of His Majesty the King, and His Majesty was at the time he held the position of His Highness the Crown Prince, on December 21, 1982, thanks to that returns to the late Emir of the country, His Highness Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, may God bless him For the Amal Institute for Special Education.
Then the major projects continued during my mother’s era, then in light of my presidency of the association, to meet the needs of women and society, namely: the care center for the paper industrial, the microstart, and the women’s and child information center.
You talked about turning the association in light of your presidency into the research and development work of childhood and women. Do you have other achievements in the leadership of the association?
– I sought to rely on the Child and Motherhood Care Association on self -financing, and we worked on charitable, cultural and other activities that fall under the “parallel diplomacy” and are due to income at the same time on the association’s projects for families, women and children with disabilities, such as Eve markets, the embassy market, and the good dish, and the most recent of which is the “science that benefits” initiative, where it cooperated with artists to sell artworks in favor of the association’s projects, as well as from the upcoming projects, as well Rawda Lulwa, which is added to kindergarten in the association, is an educational educational project that contributes to the development of the association’s resources.
What gave you volunteer work? What did he take from you?
– He gave me volunteering to serve my community and my country a lot. I learned to deal and communicate with all groups of society, and I got to know the cultural and artistic world, and also stressed the importance of taking advantage of time and respecting it, in consolidation of what I learned in the “Lulwa House”.
And take me from myself!
I present it to everything I ask for myself, on my comfort, and my hobbies, and I start my day with everything that is required in the association or the World Businesswomen Federation, and in the evening period I return to my hobbies.
We would like to shed light on an important volunteer station, your presidency of the Union of Business and Professions?
– The International Federation of International Business and Occupation was established in 1930 by Dr. Lina Phillips, which was aimed at empowering women and qualifying them for self -reliance and improving their economic level while taking care and preserving the pillars of their family by training, qualifying and guiding them to become pioneers in the fields of trade, while achieving financial and moral gains that benefit the national economy and society.
The International Federation of Bahraini Business and Professions has become among the branches of the International Federation, after its establishment in 2012, and since that time it has contributed a great bid, as it has concluded agreements with organizations, federations and trainers from 40 countries around the world, with the aim of developing and training Bahraini women’s cadres.
Since his move to his new headquarters in the Andalus Park in the last quarter of 2019, it has become 18 business incubators, and 17 in its second branch in the Arts House; To become the total incubators 35 in multiple fields, along with a training hall, an internet cafe, a showroom, a gold formulation, a restaurant, a cafe and an art center for the most famous Bahraini artists and others.
In conclusion .. What are the most prominent honors that Sheikha Hind bint Salman obtained?
– I got many honors throughout my career and voluntary career, but the volunteer is Ashraf and the biggest honor for me, which is the largest award I got, and I inherited it from my mother.
