Khaled Al-Emadi

His Excellency Khalid bin Abbas bin Kamal Al-Emadi is Executive Director of the Qatar Foundation for Orphan Care, Dreama, a consultant at the same institution and a former member of the Shura Council. He holds a master’s degree in leadership from Ohio University and has worked across education, social care and politics.

Khalid Kamal was born in Doha’s Freej Al Asmakh, in the Amadiyah area a few metres from Souq Waqif. He was the youngest son in a religious, conservative and socially stable family characterised by affection and harmony.

His family gave him a firm grounding in values and principles, with his mother playing the central role. She memorised the Qur’an and lived by its teachings, while also loving poetry in its many forms. She was determined that her children should learn and took responsibility for placing them on the path of knowledge, which she believed would secure their future happiness. She monitored their work at home and regularly visited their schools to ask about their progress, continuing until they reached university. With their father occupied by business, credit after God belonged largely to her for the sound upbringing they received.

The wider community also refined his character. It taught cooperation, respect and fidelity to customs and traditions at a time when the social fabric was particularly cohesive. He became deeply attached to the freej, its popular atmosphere and Qatar’s authentic culture. The neighbourhood was alive with harmony and cooperation, and its residents preserved their traditions. Khalid and his contemporaries enjoyed folk games and chants, especially on Ramadan evenings.

As a young man, he kept physically fit through diving, hunting and fishing on land and at sea, as well as climbing and horse riding. Football occupied most of his free time, and his ability could have taken him into any Qatari club. His father nevertheless prevented him from joining one, fearing that sport would distract him from education and his future.

As the youngest son and the child closest to his father, he accompanied him on hunting and fishing expeditions and on business journeys around the Gulf. He frequently visited the Souq Waqif shop that his father, a well-known arms merchant, had inherited from his own parents. Curiosity about the weapons and their uses eventually made Khalid adept at dismantling, assembling and maintaining them. His father’s majlis was open to sheikhs, dignitaries and public figures, and Khalid listened carefully to their conversations. He learned wisdom, patience, restraint and the etiquette of speaking with elders and people of standing, while absorbing longstanding Qatari customs directly from that founding generation. Later social visits reinforced bonds of friendship and respect with many of them. These experiences broadened his outlook, strengthened his confidence and encouraged lasting respect for himself and others.

He completed primary education at Khalid bin Al-Walid School, preparatory education at Qatar Preparatory School and secondary education at Doha Secondary School, all state schools. After secondary school, he entered the military and was nominated to study in France. He declined because his father was seriously ill and his brothers were studying abroad, leaving no one else to provide care. He devoted himself to his father and later entered Qatar University’s College of Education, graduating in 1989.

He began teaching at Qatar Preparatory School in 1989. His conviction that education was a noble mission and a means of building a generation that would serve the nation helped him form close relationships with colleagues and pupils. He remained in education, later becoming a mentor, until 2004.

In 1994, he began master’s study in Lansing, Michigan. Limited English initially made both study and daily life difficult, and failing the TOEFL examination led him to consider withdrawing. The prospect of facing his family—especially the mother who had taught him confidence and resilience—prevented him from giving up. He chose to try again, forming friendships with American students and sharing their daily lives. They helped him master natural pronunciation, while Gulf and other Arab contemporaries showed him effective study methods, including recording, repeating and memorising new vocabulary. His English gradually improved until he overcame the obstacle.

After passing the TOEFL examination, he was admitted to Ohio University and moved there to study. He enjoyed both the city and the university and managed to pursue the hunting and fishing he had inherited as interests from his father, forming friendships with local enthusiasts. Life abroad broadened his awareness, opened new horizons and gave him experience that supported his later success.

During the period of his studies for his master’s degree, he managed to change the West’s negative impression of Arabs and Muslims. The biased and politicized Western media worked to paint a bad image in the minds of the West of everything Islamic or Arab. Khalid encountered racism because he was Arab and Middle Eastern. Over time, his conduct and respectful engagement challenged those stereotypes and won the confidence of those around him. Although still a student, he became an effective informal ambassador for his country and its Arab and Islamic culture.

His work with Dreama, the Qatar Foundation for Orphan Care, became the most important stage of his career and a distinctive humanitarian achievement. He first joined the committee established under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser to create an institution caring for orphans and people in need. Her Highness directed that the institution be established and that obstacles to its work be removed. Khalid Kamal was subsequently appointed Director-General of Dreama, a responsibility for which he proved well suited.

He assumed responsibility for developing the institution. At Rumaila Children’s Hospital, he met children of unknown parentage and examined their social and psychological needs. Visits to Arab and European countries then enabled him to study different approaches to supporting orphans and children without family care. Drawing on that knowledge, he worked with a specialist team to define the project’s requirements, safeguards and operating standards. The institution adopted the aspiration “Dreama: a shelter without children”, expressing his conviction that children should grow within families rather than institutions.

He chose “Dreama” as the institution’s name and emblem, drawing on Qatar’s natural environment. The plant grows in the country and combines strength with beauty: delicate flowers emerge despite harsh climatic conditions, symbolising the innocence and beauty of children living through adversity. He and his team set clear objectives for the organisation, beginning with direct, comprehensive care for orphans and children of unknown parentage and work to integrate them into families.

Its objectives included developing children’s character and supporting their cultural and social growth so that they could participate actively in society.

The institution also sought to ease children’s suffering by creating supportive alternatives, including friends and companion families.

It provided recreational activities in a safe family atmosphere and built varied social connections to support children’s academic and psychological development.

Through effective communication with others, children were helped to acquire new skills and strengthen those they already possessed.

Children who had not been placed permanently with families, including those living in shelters, could spend holidays, weekends or summer breaks with families willing to provide temporary care, in the hope that those relationships might lead to fostering.

After discussion, the children served by the institution were grouped into four categories: those of unknown parentage; those whose father or mother was unknown; children orphaned through bereavement; and social orphans affected by family breakdown. In coordination with the relevant state authorities, the institution was also entrusted with cases involving pregnancies outside marriage.

Colleagues and employees described Khalid Kamal as a humane leader. Their testimony helped form this biography after he declined to write about himself. At Dreama, he devoted himself to the institution rather than remaining behind his desk. Urgent situations sometimes required him to stay overnight, and his close relationship with the children enabled him to intervene in more than one suicide attempt. Because many regarded him as a father figure, he expected the same dedication from his team. He worked alongside employees, listened to their concerns individually and regularly sought candid feedback, including criticism that could help him correct weaknesses in the organisation.

Among Dreama’s achievements under his leadership was resolving highly sensitive social cases involving pregnancies outside marriage. In coordination with the relevant authorities, the institution maintained complete confidentiality for beneficiaries and changed its administrative policy to provide urgent assistance and practical solutions in these exceptional circumstances.

It prioritised care within families rather than shelters, placing children with relatives or foster families after applying documented requirements designed to guarantee a safe home.

The Foundation sought to establish recognised family ties through breastfeeding by the foster mother or one of the family’s mahrams, so that the child’s presence within the household accorded with the Islamic legal principle: “What is prohibited through breastfeeding is what is prohibited through lineage.”

Children’s names were made similar, but not identical, to those of foster families to avoid the Islamic legal prohibition on adoption and related inheritance complications. Skin tone was also considered when matching a child with a foster family, so as not to attract attention or intrusive questions and thereby to protect the child’s dignity and psychological wellbeing.

The Foundation provided financial assistance, ongoing support for orphans and widows responsible for them, and essential household furniture and food supplies.

It regularly followed pupils affiliated with Dreama at school, checking on both their conduct and their academic progress.

Official bodies granted the Foundation exceptional authority in certain cases, recognising that its work was fundamentally humanitarian and that obstacles had to be removed so it could protect society and vulnerable children. Its care did not end with childhood: Dreama supported beneficiaries into adulthood, helped a number of them marry and worked to ensure their transition to safety and stability.

Other achievements included helping beneficiaries return to employment after setbacks, following the legal cases of people in Dreama’s care through a lawyer’s office, and coordinating with foster carers and public authorities to secure identity documents for fostered orphans.

The Foundation also provided specialist technical and psychological services. It assessed families applying to foster, offered counselling to beneficiaries inside and outside Dreama and delivered cognitive behavioural therapy to referred cases. Legal advice and judicial follow-up were available, alongside educational monitoring, academic support and work to strengthen beneficiaries’ knowledge and skills.

His wife’s illness was one of the most consequential experiences of his life. He travelled with her and remained at her side, grateful for the support she had given him throughout his career and for her devotion to raising their children. She later died after a prolonged illness—may God have mercy on her—leaving him responsible for the home and family. He therefore sought to reduce his professional duties so that he could meet those family obligations.

Khalid had not planned to enter the Shura Council because managing Dreama and fulfilling other community responsibilities occupied most of his time. When those demands eased, he considered another avenue of service to his country and society. After reflection and prayer, he submitted his candidacy at the Qatar University registration centre two days before nominations closed. He told no one, including his family. Within days, congratulatory calls began arriving, and he was surprised by how quickly the news had spread. The support and prayers of his family and friends brought him particular joy.

The election campaign required him to present a programme to voters, listen to their needs and problems and carry their voice to decision-makers. His extensive relationships with Qatari families and dignitaries took him to majlises across the country, where he explained his programme with openness and credibility. It rested on four pillars—social, human, economic and environmental development—each integral to Qatar National Vision 2030. He regarded the programme as a moral commitment to voters. Drawing on his previous work as a teacher, he placed particular emphasis on education as the foundation of social progress and a force affecting every sector. He visited schools to understand the system’s challenges and sought to develop curricula and teaching methods in step with contemporary technology.

He gave particular attention to women’s issues in recognition of their active role in Qatari society. His proposals included equal pay, development of family law, support for reproductive rights, working hours that acknowledged motherhood and workplace nurseries in both public and private sectors. He also addressed the use of retirees’ experience and the needs of older people and vulnerable groups, including widows, divorced women and orphans, seeking solutions and improvements in their material and social conditions.

Health was another major concern. He sought practical solutions to delayed hospital appointments and the burden they placed on ordinary citizens. For young people, especially new graduates, he examined how to accelerate recruitment into posts suited to their qualifications. He also wanted to remove obstacles facing ambitious young entrepreneurs so that their energy and contribution could support the national economy.

His environmental proposals included promoting a culture of recycling in line with Qatar’s sustainability objectives.

He presented his electoral programme with integrity and clarity, supported throughout the campaign by family and relatives. Four competitors eventually withdrew, leaving six candidates in the race. Counting continued until nearly midnight on the final day. When he was declared the winner, he thanked God and prostrated in gratitude before returning home to celebrations with family and friends. His election to the Shura Council justified the voters’ confidence and deepened his responsibility towards society and country.