Dr Khaled Azzam

“I met Mr. Mohammed Jameel several times on social occasions, but I think the one moment that transformed our relationship was during the visit of the late King Abdullah to the United Kingdom, and in a particular visit that the King Abdullah came to Clarence House.  He came at the invitation of the [HRH] the Prince of Wales and he came with a delegation of Saudi very important people, some business people and so forth.  And amongst this delegation was Mr. Mohammed Jameel, who I knew of, and I knew casually but i did not know well.

We were asked to give a presentation by His Royal Highness, to His Majesty King Abdullah of the work that the school is doing in the Arab world and then that was the end of it.  The meeting was finished, and then that evening, I got a call from Mr. Mohammed Jameel, saying I was hearing very carefully what you were saying and I’d like to speak to you more about this.  So, I was very pleased and honored that something happened that day, and somebody actually was paying attention and valuing what we were giving and we spoke for a very long time about what we do, how we engage with young people, how we work in the Arab world, how we have a vision to create a sense of community, a sense of identity, a sense of worth, through the work of the school.

A few days later, I heard from him again, saying that he would like to support us with a major program in the Arab world and he very kindly gave us an endowment fund to be able to support this project,  This project’s been going on now, for a good, well, for over 15 years and has graduated many students has influenced government policy and has been one of the most successful outreach programs that The Prince’s School has done.

My message to Mr. Mohammed Jameel and Fady,  is first of all, one of gratitude and thanks for having the confidence in sharing the vision with us.  We were doing things that not been done in this part of the world before, and I think looking back at that, the gratitude stems from that moment of faith and confidence in letting us do what we wanted to do together.   And over the years providing their support to make it grow and grow and grow, and become a major initiative in the art world.”

 

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