Jordan’s Queen Rania hosts Versailles dinner for charity
The only dove of peace that can fly across borders, ignoring threats of war and vested interests, is philanthropy. Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan gave a gala dinner Monday at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris for her Jordan River Foundation, aimed at protecting children from all forms of abuse. Present was French President Jacques Chirac’s wife, Bernadette, and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Marianna Vardinoyianni from Greece, who is president of the Elpida Foundation for Children with Cancer and founder-president of the Foundation for Children and the Family. Also at the gala were the wives of the French prime minister, Madame Anne Marie Raffarin, and of the Lebanese prime minister, Madame Hariri; the wife of the Aga Khan, Begum Inaara, accompanied by her mother and the wife of the former president of France, Anne-Aymone Giscard d’Estaing, who is a pioneer in her country in the field of the protection of children. Looking wonderful were Farah Diba, the widow of the last Shah of Iran, Ira von Furstenburg, model Naomi Campbell and fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier. The proceeds of the gala are to be used to set up the «Child Safety Program,» providing for a family development center in a disadvantaged area of Amman, the capital of Jordan, with accommodation for families and aimed at helping parents learn how to avoid abusive behavior.
