AMMAN (JT) - Her Majesty Queen Noor celebrates her birthday today, marking more than three decades of work devoted to strengthening Jordan’s national development and addressing global challenges to human security and peace.

This year, Her Majesty commemorated the 10th anniversary of the King Hussein Foundation (KHF), established in 1999 as an enduring commitment to His Majesty King Hussein's humanitarian vision and legacy.

KHF encompasses the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF), founded by Queen Noor in 1985 to facilitate lasting social and economic change across Jordan and the region in areas that include poverty eradication, family health, policy research, women's empowerment and microfinance, and arts as a medium for social development and cross-cultural exchange. NHF has provided training and assistance in implementing its best practice programmes in nearly 20 countries in the broader Arab and Muslim world.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of Tamweelcom, which has provided nearly 120,000 loans to micro-enterprises throughout Jordan, as well as school education grants for their clients’ children, helping them to raise their families’ living standards.

NHF’s Institute for Family Health recently opened Jordan’s first specialised treatment centre for trauma victims. It also launched a guide for private health providers on caring for victims of violence against women, as well as a human rights awareness project to reduce gender-based and domestic violence.

Additionally, KHF’s Information and Research Centre completed new studies on honour crimes and children at risk, and organised a conference on the impact of war on children in Palestine, Iraq and Sudan as well as refugees in host countries like Jordan.

In July, Queen Noor welcomed over 140 youths from around the world to the 29th Annual International Arab Children Congress, which is hosted by KHF's National Centre for Culture and Performing Arts, to discuss children’s security and their right to protection including the global threat of nuclear weapons.

Her Majesty also attended graduation ceremonies for 71 students from the Jubilee School, a KHF institution that provides scholarships for meritorious students from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

The King Hussein Foundation International (KHFI) was founded in 1999 to support KHF’s regional and international mission. Its programmes include the King Hussein Leadership Prize and the Media and Humanity Programme, launched during New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 to promote film and media projects that highlight shared values, rights and aspirations across social, economic, political and cultural divides with special emphasis on the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Queen Noor awarded the 2008 Leadership Prize to Robert Freling, executive director of the Solar Electric Light Fund, for his leadership in bringing sustainable green energy to rural villages around the world. Past recipients of the prize include Professor Muhammed Yunus (2000), the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (2002), Mary Robinson (2003) and the Arab Human Development Reports (2005).

Queen Noor is actively involved in a number of international organisations advancing global peace-building and conflict recovery. She is a founding leader of Global Zero, an international effort to eliminate nuclear weapons worldwide, an adviser to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Seeds of Peace, the Council of Women World Leaders, Women Waging Peace and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and honorary chairperson of Survivor Corps.

She is also president of the United World Colleges, trustee of the Aspen Institute, Refugees International, America Near-East Refugee Aid, and Conservation International, patron of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and founding president and honorary president emeritus of BirdLife International.

In the past year, Queen Noor has been honoured with the 2009 Healing the Planet Award from the Physicians for Social Responsibility, the 2009 Global Environmental Citizen Award from Harvard Medical School’s Centre for Health and the Global Environment, the 2008 Amigo de los Niños Award from Save the Children, and the Humanitarian Award from International Relief and Development.

Queen Noor has four children, Their Royal Highnesses Princes Hamzah and Hashim and Princesses Iman and Raiyah, and three grandchildren, Princesses Halaah Bint Hashim, Haya Bint Hamzah and Raiyah Bint Hashim.