FCBARCELONA.CAT

15.10.2008 11:18

Unicef and Barça expand to Malawi and Angola

www.fcbarcelona.cat

Malawi and Angola have joined Swaziland as the beneficiaries of the projects that have jointly been undertaken by the Fundación FC Barceona and UNICEF expanding the Blaugrana’s solidarity work even further.

The pioneering agreement, signed in September 2006, has expanded to include the two new countries. It is a decision that reinforces the motto ‘Més que un club al mon’ (More than a club around the world) and increases the range of the accord.

The project in Malawi will provide welfare assistance and will help orphaned children who have, in the main, been affected by AIDS. Support will be offered in the way of education, health care and psychological help. Despite it being a country with a low level of AIDS, sport will be used to make youngsters aware of the disease in order to help prevent the spread of it.

Due to the incorporation of the two new countries as beneficiaries, the strategy in Swaziland will now change. After working with children situated in rural areas, work will now focus on the prevention of the spread of AIDS between mother and child and childcare.

Objectives achieved in Swaziland so far

The work carried out in Swaziland over the past year and a half has been intense and very productive, as a delegation from FC Barcelona saw first-hand when they visited the country in December 2007. Since starting out the following has been achieved in Swaziland:

• Apparatus has been installed in hospitals that diagnose AIDS in Under-18s and allow treatment to be administered earlier.

• Around 23 Community Help Centres have been constructed to give help to more than 1,000 vulnerable children, especially those that live in out-lying and rural areas. The centres offer nutritional, medical and psychological support. Almost 900 helpers, called caregivers, have been employed to helped supervise and run the centres.

• Latrines have also been built and 17 new water wells have been dug in various schools to give access to running water. That has allowed youngsters to avoid drinking unhealthy water from reservoirs often shared with animals.

• Resources in several rural clinics have been expanded and education about AIDS has begun to be taught to show people what the devastating effects of the disease can be and let them know that they can go to the help centres and have tests and be monitored.

• The registration of children has been expanded to include all new-borns. Although a system was already in place, it was not standardised before the project began. Now 12,000 children from 120 communities are registered.

• A programme has been placed into 100 schools across the country that use sport as an educational tool. This allows youngsters to integrate into their community more and to learn a lessons about life, like how to respect ones rights.