UN: SOCCER - Football club BArcelona joins hands wth UNICEF to help children across the world

Record ID: 422491

  • Title: UN: SOCCER - Football club BArcelona joins hands wth UNICEF to help children across the world
  • Date: 9th September 2006
  • Summary: UNITED NATIONS (SEPTEMBER 7, 2006) (REUTERS) PRESS CONFERENCE UNICEF-BARCELONA VIDEO INTRODUCTION OF UNICEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNICEF EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ANN M. VENEMAN SAYING: "This is a very exciting day for UNICEF. We are launching a new partnership which joins UNICEF and the football club which will help push open a door for thousands of children." MAN LOOKING ON (SOUNDBITE) (English) BARCELONA FOOTBALL CLUB'S PRESIDENT JOAN LAPORTA SAYING: "We believe we have a very powerful tool - soccer. We know that if this tool is put to good use, we can really make a difference and this is why we have decided to work with UNICEF, an institution that shares our values and vision. We want Barca to contribute the global UNICEF programs for the benefit of children who are suffering." PRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANN M. VENEMAN SAYING: "It is a message of shared responsibilities for the children of the world, a message about the linkages between sport and development and a message about the potential of sport to change the world. It is a powerful and expansive message that will be seen whenever the club Barcelona competes." ANN M. VENEMAN AND JOAN LAPORTA HOLD UP THE NEW BARCELONA JERSEY WITH THE UNICEF LOGO AS PEOPLE CLAP.
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Sports,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVA6NEOKWU6JAVJL9YPGCUDWQIN3
  • Story Text: The Barcelona soccer club and the U.N. children's agency, UNICEF, announced on Thursday (September 07), a global partnership that stands to benefit children in the developing world. According to this partnership, the club will donate $1.9 million (1.5 million euros) a year over the next five years to help poor children with AIDS in developing countries.
    "This is a very exciting day for UNICEF. We are launching a new partnership which joins UNICEF and the football club which will help push open a door for thousands of children," said UNICEF Executive Director, Ann M. Veneman.
    The first installment of the club's money will pay for AIDS programs in Swaziland, a tiny, impoverished country in southern Africa where some 40 percent of adults are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
    The money will fund efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission and infection among adolescents and to support and care for children orphaned by the disease.
    Barcelona Football Club's president Joan Laporta believes that this partnership is in keeping with the club's values and ideals and hopes that the club can use soccer (football) to make a change for the better.
    "We believe we have a very powerful tool - soccer. We know that if this tool is put to good use, we can really make a difference and this is why we have decided to work with UNICEF, an institution that shares our values and vision. We want Barca to contribute the global UNICEF programs for the benefit of children who are suffering," he said.
    As part of the deal, the Spanish and European champion's scarlet and blue jersey will have UNICEF's logo on its front, the first time in the club's 107-year history it has allowed such an arrangement.
    Barcelona Football Club is one of the biggest and most popular clubs in the world with the likes of global icons Ronaldinho, Thuram, and Zambrotta in their ranks. Veneman hopes that the UNICEF logo will help to educate millions who tune in to watch Barca play.
    "It is a message of shared responsibilities for the children of the world, a message about the linkages between sport and development and a message about the potential of sport to change the world. It is a powerful and expansive message that will be seen whenever the club Barcelona competes," she said.
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