Haïti - Pays en crise

Frontline Diary

18 August 2004: Brazil football stars team up for kids

© UNICEF/2004/Morel

Fans welcome the Brazil team in Santo Domingo.

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During a historic goodwill football game promoting peace in Haiti, UNICEF will help bring to the world's attention the plight of Haiti's children. On 18 August, the national team of Haiti and defending World Cup champion Brazil will play a friendly match in the capital, Port-au-Prince, to promote peace and encourage armed factions to hand in their guns.

UNICEF's Patrick Slavin is covering the event and reporting on UNICEF-supported programmes for Haitian children.

SANTO DOMINGO, 18 August 2004 - UNICEF's new report, Sport Recreation and Play, states that the right to play helps teach young people life skills, brings communities together, and addresses young people in a language they understand.

All three of these benefits were on display yesterday here in the capital of the Dominican Republic, where the Brazilian national football team gathered before flying to Haiti to play in the Game for Peace.

I travelled here yesterday from Port-au-Prince (Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola) to interview the Brazilian players about their support for UNICEF. We were also able to interview Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim. The president is attending the historic game which is taking place later today in Haiti. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 PM.

UNICEF was able to bring scores of kids to watch the Brazilian team practice yesterday at Santo Domingo's Estadio Olimpico. More than 15,000 ecstatic football fans packed the stadium and cheered every move of Ronaldo, the captain of the Brazilian team and one of the most recognized athletes in the world. The 27-year-old forward is also a highly articulate children's champion - and he will enter Haiti's Sylvio Cator Stadium later today carrying a four-year-old Haitian boy in his arms.

The youngster, Donald, whom I met last year at a UNICEF-supported centre for AIDS-affected children, is one of the 5,000 children who are born every year in Haiti with the HIV virus.

© UNICEF/2004/Morel

Brazil football player Ronaldo signs a football for a boy from the UNICEF-supported Muchachos y Muchachas project.

When Ronaldo finished his team's workout yesterday, he stopped to sign autographs for five children who are part of a UNICEF-supported programme here called Muchachos y Muchachas (Boys and Girls).

The programme assists children living in difficult circumstances. One of the kids, Ariel Ramirez, 12, was lucky enough to have Ronaldo sign a soccer ball that he had received from UNICEF earlier in the day. The oldest of his family's four sons, Ariel told me that he works every day in the streets selling ice cream.

I could clearly see in his face the harsh pressures of daily life - he is a sombre and quiet boy. But when I asked him about meeting Ronaldo, his eyes came alive with exuberance. He looked for a moment like an ordinary 12-year-old, not a child who has to walk the streets selling a snack that he and his brothers cannot afford.

"I want to go to school more, and become an engineer," Ariel said. "I want to pa' alante." I asked UNICEF's communications officer in the Dominican Republic, Patricia Garcia, what 'pa' alante' means. She smiled broadly: "It's a popular expression here in the Dominican Republic. It means I want to go ahead."

It's now 5:55 AM, and the sun is just starting to rise. It looks calm, bright, and spectacularly beautiful - as is usual here in the Caribbean. Let's hope the peace of a new day also reaches Haiti today, a country in such desperate shape but whose people desperately want to pa' alante.