A UK charity has named a Middle Eastern princess as a director.
Turquoise Mountain Trust’s appointment of Princess Dana Firas of Jordan was revealed in an email update from Companies House.
The £9.2m charity, formed by the then Prince Charles in 2006, exists to “revive historic areas and traditional crafts, to provide jobs, skills and a renewed sense of pride”.
It currently operates in Afghanistan, Myanmar and the Middle East.
According to its website, Turquoise Mountain has “restored over 150 historic buildings, trained over 15,000 artisans, treated over 165,000 patients at its Kabul clinic and supported and generated over $17m in sales of traditional crafts to international clients”.
The charity’s work dovetails with the work carried out by Princess Dana, who is the wife of Prince Firas bin Ra’ad.
Unesco, which made the princess a goodwill ambassador in 2017, describes her as “a fervent and passionate advocate of heritage protection”.
It says she was made an ambassador “in light of her commitment to heritage protection preservation as a pillar of sustainable development and her contribution to responsible tourism”.
She is president of the Petra National Trust and is a global advocate for heritage protection and preservation as a foundation for development, responsible tourism, identity and political participation and peace building.