She has been to more than 71 countries through her humanitarian work. She opened an orphanage in Burkina Faso, has helped people affected by floods in Pakistan, and even opened an Islamic Studies centre at the University of Cambridge. The latter may not be a direct kind of philanthropy, but helping people all over the world to understand the region is definitely important.
Within Saudi Arabia, Princess Ameerah works on issues involving entrepreneurship and youth. Besides being a board member of Silatech, which aims at empowering Arab youth, she is a member of the Disabled Children’s Association and co-founded Tasamy, which encourages social entrepreneurship.
As the head of the Al-Waleed bin Talal Foundation’s executive committee, she focuses on empowering women. She created a network of women leaders in the Kingdom to organize and discuss the big issues that need to be tackled.
Princess Ameerah often comments on women’s rights, and landed herself in hot water for comments about women driving – she has said that she wants to be among the first women to drive on Saudi streets. She acknowledges that she doesn’t represent all Saudi women, but a sector of them. In any case, her work doesn’t only tackle women’s rights issues.
In a speech at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative, she said: “If we want prosperity in the region we must invest in young people through encouraging enterprise.”
Besides her many philanthropic ventures, she definitely encourages people to make positive changes. She keeps her fans and admirers involved, tweeting out ways for the 1.4 million people who follow her to help out – recently, she gave an easy way to help Syrian refugees.
