JEDDAH: American-Palestinian supermodel Gigi Hadid is visiting Bangladesh to meet Rohingya Muslim refugees. The 23-year-old model is documenting her work with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Bangladesh on social media.
Hadid visited the Jamtoli Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar on Friday, where she met with Rohingya refugee children.
“En route to the Jamtoli Refugee Camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh,” she wrote on Instagram. “As well as providing for the Rohingya refugees, UNICEF supports the host communities in need, including an estimated 28,000 people given access to better sanitation and safe water through the WASH Program, and 53,000 locals have been supported in educational activities.”
She shared several images of children at the camp, detailing the conditions they live in and UNICEF’s work in the area. “Across all the camps, 1.3 million people currently require humanitarian assistance; more than half of them are children,” Hadid wrote.
Hadid visited a “women/girl-friendly” zone, where they get a basic education and learn skills such as sewing. “We spoke about their personal stories and hardships, what they enjoy and benefit from currently in the refugee camps, what they still need, and what they hope for their futures. Their strength, bravery and desire to learn and better their lives and the lives of their children is inspiring and encourages us @unicefusa to continue to find new ways to support these amazing human beings during this crisis,” she wrote.
The cause of the refugees is one that is close to Hadid’s heart. Her father, Mohamed Hadid, came to the United States as a refugee before he became a billionaire real estate developer. In January, Hadid and her younger sister, Bella, protested US President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting some Muslim-majority countries.
On Saturday, Hadid visited UNICEF’s child-friendly space in Camp 9 of the Kutupalong Balukhali Refugee Camp. The purpose of the camp, Hadid said, is to “let kids be kids.”
“As well as psychosocial work to help them get through trauma through activities like art, they also can play sports, learn music, and learn to read and draw (some for the first time in their lives). Separate from educational spaces, the importance of these spaces is huge due to the fact that refugee children can spend a majority of the day working, usually collecting firewood from miles away so their families can cook, taking care of siblings, helping around the house etc., and here they can just focus on having fun,” she wrote.
The model also visited the UNICEF Learning Center in the Shamlapur Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar.
Gigi Hadid visits Rohingya refugee camps
Gigi Hadid visits Rohingya refugee camps
- American-Palestinian supermodel Gigi Hadid is visiting Bangladesh to meet Rohingya Muslim refugees
- Hadid visited the Jamtoli Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar on Friday
Cairo book fair breaks visitor records
- Strong Saudi participation underscores KSA’s prominent role in Arab cultural landscape
- Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, was selected as the fair’s featured personality
CAIRO: The 57th edition of the Cairo International Book Fair has attracted record public attendance, with the number of visits reaching nearly 6 million, up from a reported 5.5 million previously.
Egypt’s Minister of Culture Ahmed Fouad Hanou said: “This strong turnout reflects the public’s eagerness across all age groups to engage with the exhibition’s diverse cultural and intellectual offerings.”
Hanou said the event included “literary and intellectual activities, meetings with thinkers and creative figures, and thousands of titles spanning various fields of knowledge.”
The Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1988, was selected as the fair’s featured personality, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of his death.
The exhibition’s official poster features a famous quote by Mahfouz: “Who stops reading for an hour falls centuries behind.”
A total of 1,457 publishing houses from 83 countries participated in the fair. Mahfouz’s novels occupied a special place, as Egypt’s Diwan Library showcased the author’s complete works, about 54 books.
“The pavilion of the Egyptian National Library and Archives witnessed exceptionally high attendance throughout the fair, showcasing a collection of rare and significant books.
Among the highlights was the book “Mosques of Egypt” in Arabic and English, Dr. Sherif Saleh, head of financial and administrative affairs at the Egyptian National Library and Archives, told Arab News.
The fair ended on Tuesday with a closing ceremony that featured a cultural performance titled “Here is Cairo.”
The event included the announcement of the winners of the fair’s awards, as well as the recipient of the Naguib Mahfouz Award for Arabic Fiction.
Organizers described this year’s edition as having a celebratory and cultural character, bringing together literature, art, and cinema.
Romania was the guest of honor this year, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of Egyptian-Romanian relations.
At the Saudi pavilion, visitors were welcomed with traditional coffee. It showcased diverse aspects of Saudi culture, offering a rich experience of the Kingdom’s heritage and creativity.
There was significant participation from Saudi Arabia at the event, highlighting the Kingdom’s prominent role in the Arab cultural arena.
Saudi Arabia’s participation aimed to showcase its literary and intellectual output, in alignment with the objectives of Vision 2030.
The Kingdom’s delegation was led by Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Egypt Saleh bin Eid Al-Hussaini. Also in attendance were Dr. Abdul Latif Abdulaziz Al-Wasel, CEO of the Literature, Publishing and Translation Commission, and Dr. Hilah Al-Khalaf, the commission’s director-general.
The King Abdulaziz Public Library placed the Encyclopedia of Saudi Arabia in a prominent position at the pavilion. The encyclopedia, consisting of 20 volumes, is organized according to the Kingdom’s culturally diverse regions.
Founded in 1980 by King Abdullah, the library was established to facilitate access to knowledge and preserve heritage collections. Over the years, it has grown into one of the Kingdom’s most important cultural institutions.
Internationally, the library has strengthened ties between Saudi Arabia and China, including the opening of a branch at Peking University and receiving the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation between the two nations.
Regionally, the library has played a pivotal role in the Arab world through the creation of the Unified Arabic Cataloging Project, one of the most important initiatives contributing to knowledge accessibility and alignment with global standards.
