20.06.2009 10:39
Barça and Acnur support World Refugee Day
www.fcbarcelona.cat
The two organisations have launched a video to raise awareness and are organising a football tournament in Syria between Somali and Iraqi refugees.
World Refugee Day –WRD- (June 20), Futbol Club Barcelona, its Foundation and ACNUR, The
UN’s agency for refugees, have united to honour the value, strength and fighting spirit of
some 42 million refugees and internally displaced people around the world. These are people that
have lost everything, that have been obliged to leave their homes to flee from persecution, war and
violations of Human Rights.
"Play this game with us"
Fundació FC Barcelona and ACNUR have produced through Barçatv a video to raise
awareness that also displays Barça’s commitment to refugees and displaced people. The video
includes images from the “Gimme Shelter” report directed by actor and director Ben
Affleck. For more information on the plight of refugees, please visit
http://www.eacnur.com
.
Actions with refugees in Syria
FC Barcelona and its Foundation know no boundaries and are
now collaborating by means of a football tournament held on Friday in Damascus, Syria involving
Iraqi and Somali refugees as well as humanitarian aid workers. Syria has more than a million Iraqi
refugees who have suffered violence in Iraq and are fighting for survival on the outskirts of the
capital city and other regions of the country with the support of ACNUR and its collaborators.
Donation of material by the Foundation
Knowing the admiration these refugees sense towards FC Barcelona, the Foundation had no
doubts about donating sports materials as well as signed banners, balloons and posters. “We
are very grateful to the Foundation for yet another show of solidarity that can bring some hope to
the lives of these refugees on a day when they are the veritable protagonists”, said Maricela
Daniel, representative of ACNUR in Spain. The material was distributed to the participants in the
football tournament in Damascus, games in which everybody was a winner.