More than a hundred guests visited the booths featured during the 7th Diplomatic Bazaar, which was inaugurated yesterday at the Qatar International Exhibition Center.
Around 41 embassies here, 35 companies and 30 families have put up booths and are selling goods at the three-day Diplomatic Charity Bazaar, which was organised by the Social Development Center (SDC), member of the Qatar Foundation, under the patronage of H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned. Proceeds of the event will go to the SDC’s “Persistent Even If Small” Project.
“We have had many meetings prior to this event and we decided to make sweets from our respective countries, most of them were homemade, like the German Christmas cookies… and we were very happy to do this for charity,” said Brigitte Baumgartner, wife of the German Ambassador to Doha Dr Dirk Baumgartner.
The German Embassy is part of the 14 embassies from European countries and the Americas which decided to group together and combine their efforts in preparing goods and food stuff for the exhibit. The 14 embassies include: the Netherlands, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and El Salvador.
The European Embassies and the Americas were joined by embassies from East and South-East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as some local companies like the City Centre and Ti Amo, which sells jewellery boxes and watches.
The booths at this year’s bazaar, which has the theme “Sense and Beauty,” have showcased different specialties of their respective countries – be they hand-woven fabrics, food stuff or a skill which is known only in their place.
The Malaysian Embassy’s booth showcased batik items and batik paintings with an Arab theme. The booth also featured Kebaya (Malaysian traditional dress) set. Accessories with semi-precious stones from Mindanao, parols (Christmas lanterns), abaca-made designs and Natasha products, among others, can be found at the Philippine Embassy’s booth.
Rosario Lemque, First Secretary and Consul General at the Philippine Embassy, said they asked Natasha to display their products because it is a Filipino brand. They thought to invite Bench, as well, but did not have the opportunity to seal the deal.
Wooden sculptures and traditional food stuff and utensils, like the tsahli and sefae, can be found at the Eritrean Embassy’s stand, which has also displayed framed photographs of tourist sites.
Dates and other goods made of dates, bags, abayas, Arabian coffee, and perfume are displayed at the Saudi Arabian Embassy booth. Hanani Ghannam, wife of Palestinian Ambassador Munir Ghannam and one of the organisers of the event, said she and the other wives of ambassadors to Doha had been having meetings for months and agreed to ship products from their respective countries for the exhibit.
Munir Ghannam said the Palestinian Embassy will showcase Palestinian culture and history done through embroidery made by the Association of the Sons and Daughters of the Palestinian Martyrs.
“We prepared something special for the guests of the Diplomatic Bazaar. The wives of the ambassadors here gave recipes of their countries, one for the main dish and one for dessert, and we compiled it into a book called ‘Around The World in 80 Dishes’.
The British Ambassador’s wife did the English version, and I did the Arabic version,” said Hanani Ghannam. The SDC booth has displayed handicrafts and other goods made by 30 underprivileged families the centre is assisting. The exhibit will run until May 19.
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=May2009&file=Local_News2009051823349.xml
Follow us on our social media channels:
@ILQlive
@ILQlive
@ILoveQtr
ILoveQatar
