Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Founding Chairman, Al Habtoor Group held talks with Michael Williams, Chairman, Children’s National Board of Trustees from Washington DC. The meeting took place on Wednesday 26 April 2017 at the Al Habtoor Group head office. Williams was accompanied by Pradnya Haldipur, Associate Vice President, Children’s National Foundation. They are in the United Arab Emirates as part of a high-profile delegation visiting the region from Washington DC.
They discussed potential ways to collaborate with a focus on kidney disease and diabetes. Al Habtoor said, “These diseases impact so many people around the world. It is important that more research is conducted to prevent these diseases further down the line.”
The visit comes following Chairman Al Habtoor’s recent trip to the United States where he toured the Children’s National Medical Centre and the Sheikh Zayed Institute in Washington DC. The visit preceded the 10K Healthy Kidney Run in Central Park in New York in Shiekh Zayed’s honour in April. The Al Habtoor Group was the main sponsor for the 13th Zayed Charity Marathon in New York for the second year running.
When in Washington DC, Al Habtoor visited children suffering from kidney disease and was shown around the hospital’s research centre where he met researchers, bio-medical engineers and clinicians. The Sheikh Zayed Institute of Pediatric Surgical Innovation (SZI) was founded in 2010 through a $150 million grant from the government of Abu Dhabi with a mission for the SZI to make pediatric surgery more precise, less invasive and pain free. The institute was created as a global model for health care innovation in pediatrics. Since opening, it has made a series of breakthroughs in medical technology.
Al Habtoor praised the late His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Founding President of the United Arab Emirates, for his strong principles. “Sheikh Zayed was a man who led by example. He did a lot of good around the world and he taught us something very important. He taught us not to differentiate between race or religion, and we are continuing in that footpath.”
Al Habtoor has funded several medical research initiatives including the Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Medical Simulation Center, a comprehensive simulation training facility in Dubai Healthcare City; the Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Assistive Technology Resource Centre at the Zayed University, as well as other schemes like the Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research.