Real lives

Real lives

First field visit of the UNICEF Ambassador Edin Džeko

First field visit of the UNICEF Ambassador Edin Džeko

Children Should Be Protected by Discussion and Accountability of the Media, and Not By “Keeping Children Under a Glass Bell”

Children Should Be Protected by Discussion and Accountability of the Media, and Not By “Keeping Children Under a Glass Bell”

Round Table “Child Rights Today, Child Rights in the Past”

Round Table “Child Rights Today, Child Rights in the Past”

Marking the 20th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Conference of Ministers and unveiling the Wall of Children’s Wishes and Requests

Marking the 20th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: Conference of Ministers and unveiling the Wall of Children’s Wishes and Requests

Children take initiative, asking questions to politicians in the State Parliament

Children take initiative, asking questions to politicians in the State Parliament

Dzeko: If football is "the most important unimportant" issue in the world, children are the most important issue

Dzeko: If football is "the most important unimportant" issue in the world, children are the most important issue

The best start for every child in Municipalty Novi Grad Sarajevo

The best start for every child in Municipalty Novi Grad Sarajevo

 

Dzeko: If football is "the most important unimportant" issue in the world, children are the most important issue

© UNICEF BIH

Edin Dzeko with UNICEF BiH Representative

On the occasion of marking the 20th anniversary of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the member of the BiH national team and the Wolsburg first-team player was appointed the first BiH Ambassador of UNICEF. The ceremony took place in Hotel “Terme” in Ilidza where Dzeko, the BiH national soccer team coach and other national team players stayed on the eve of a historical match against Portugal and qualifications for the World Cup in South Africa.

Although the issue was about one of the most important matches in football history of Bosnia and Herzegovina but also in the life of this young player for whom football is not a part of his life only but the life itself, Dzeko put the children to the foreground.

- “In two days time we’ll play the historic game for BiH and many people say that football is the most important minor thing in the world. However, I think that children are much more important and the most important major thing in the world”, Dzeko said at the appointment ceremony.
 
 Ms. Florence Bauer, the Head of UNICEF Mission to BiH, pointed out that for almost a half of a century more than 200 UNICEF Ambassadors have helped protecting and promoting children’s rights and improving living conditions of children around the world. 

- “Sports and games are very important for UNICEF as they constitute a vital ingredient for health, happiness and wellbeing of children and youth. UNICEF creates partnerships with leading sport organizations and famous sportsmen in order to divert attention to challenges that children face with and to collect resources to resolve them”, Bauer stated and also went on saying that UNICEF had recognized all these qualities in Edin Dzeko by welcoming him and wishing him successful missions and plentiful results.

 

© UNICEF BIH

Edin Dzeko, with UNICEF Representative, family and colleagues

- “We are delighted that he has become a member of the big family of those supporting us and, at the same time, we hope that  he will inspire other renowned persons in the country to take part in promoting the rights of the child”, Bauers stated.

In spite of the fact that at the age of 23 this young sportsman has already achieved huge success as one of the top strikers of Bundesliga – one of the strongest leagues in the world - and one of the best scorers in previous qualifications, which the world class football clubs want to have, Dzeko did not hide his happiness for joining the network of UNICEF  Ambassadors.   

- It’s a tremendous honor and pleasure to have an opportunity to be at service to UNICEF, the agency that helps children. Children are the most important thing in all this. My task, as the UNICEF Ambassador will be to draw the public’s attention to all the problems that children and families have in our country and to promote the projects and arrangements of UNICEF and its partners”, Dzeko said and added that he will use his popularity to represent children as much as possible:

- I have a lot of opportunities to address the public and I will use them to speak on behalf of children who can’t do that – he promised. The ceremony was closely followed by his team-mates who support him and by his coach who acts as a caring parent for all of them, and Dzeko in particular. His coach was next to him at the moment of a symbolic signing of the contract with UNICEF.

At the end of the ceremony Dzeko was greeted by the „Džemaludin Čaušević“ Primary School who presented him with a book on children’s rights that these children have worked on so diligently. They also red a poem dedicated to Dzeko, the BiH national soccer team, and Ciro, its coach.

 

By Almir Panjeta