UNICEF e-newsletter

Children around the world joined Italy in celebrating victory at the 2006 FIFA World Cup this past weekend. But in many ways, the real winners of the world’s greatest football tournament were the world’s most vulnerable children.

Under the banner of the UNITE FOR CHILDREN  UNITE FOR PEACE campaign, UNICEF and FIFA, the world governing body of football, harnessed the global reach and star power of the World Cup to promote a more peaceful life for young people caught in violence and conflict.

Now that World Cup fever is cooling down – at least until the next tournament in South Africa in 2010 – we’d like to give a cheer to some of the many Team UNICEF members who made the campaign a world-class effort. So hats off to:

• The squad of 15 World Cup star players, captained by UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham, who appeared in a series of video spots produced by MTV for UNICEF and FIFA for worldwide broadcast.

• The 11 young footballers profiled on UNICEF’s multilingual 2006 FIFA World Cup website, including Ivna Chérie, age 11, who sees football as an escape from gang violence in her native Haiti. “Football makes me feel better,” she told UNICEF. “It helps me not to think about the bad things that are happening out there in the world.”

• The nearly 4,000 football fans who signed up for Team UNICEF at special information booths outside the World Cup stadiums in Berlin, Munich and Cologne, Germany – and everyone else who signed up on the UNICEF-FIFA website. (The fans in Germany also had a chance to have their photos snapped for posting on our UNICEF webcam page).

To join Team UNICEF, visitors at the matches and online were asked to make the following promise: “By joining Team UNICEF, I pledge to do everything in my power to ensure that all children grow up in a world at peace.”

To all of the World Cup players and fans who made the pledge to UNITE FOR CHILDREN  UNITE FOR PEACE – and to all friends of UNICEF around the world – thank you for your vital support.

See you in South Africa!

UNICEF
For every child
Health, Education, Equality, Protection
ADVANCE HUMANITY

Here is another link that you may be interested in:

UNICEF's news feed automatically updates subscribers whenever a fresh story becomes available. Find out more.