FC Barcelona and ACNUR present their alliance in New York to fight for refugee rights

MADRID, July 29 (European press) –

FC Barcelona, ​​together with its foundation, and UNHCR/ACNUR presented Thursday at the symbolic Rockefeller Center in New York the strategic alliance they signed last June to fight for refugee rights.

This agreement with the United Nations implies joint work with the Blaugrana Team Foundation to implement projects in Colombia, Uganda, Turkey and Malaysia, countries hosting refugees and displaced persons.

As reported by the Blaugrana Club, projects this season will begin in Colombia to promote safe and protective environments for children and youth from Venezuela, internally displaced children and youth affected by armed conflict; In Malaysia, it is expected to improve the living conditions and emotional well-being of Rohingya refugee children and adolescents from Myanmar.

In Uganda, the project will focus on health, sports and environmental protection issues for young people who have had to flee South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Finally, in Izmir (Turkey), increased protection, participation and inclusion of children and youth from different countries of origin, especially from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, is expected.

Fundació FC Barcelona will contribute €400,000 per season and will be distributed equally to each project, it will also make donations of club sports equipment worth €100,000 per season and experts in the Foundation’s “SportNet” methodology will be provided in sports for development and the promotion of peace and social cohesion.

“This agreement is part of the priorities that FC Barcelona and its Foundation have set for this new phase that I have the honor to preside as a focus on the fact that refugees and displaced persons are people like us who have been forced to leave their homes by force. We must protect them, especially girls, boys and young people in different countries around the world,” he said. Laporta, who was accompanied by Xavi Hernandez, Jordi Alba, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Sergi Roberto, Frank Kessie and former players Thierry. Henry and Giuliano Belletti.

On her part, Dr. Marta Sego, Director General of the Foundation, explained the details of the alliance and the projects on which the two institutions will work together, and noted that one of the first results of the alliance is that the male and female LaLiga Genuine football team wear the UN Refugee Agency logo on the back of their shirts.

Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner, also shared a video in which he stressed the need to “work together to ensure that these people, boys and girls, women and men, are not left behind” and that this alliance “means sending a very strong message of solidarity towards refugees and displaced persons, as “Using the power of sport, we help homeless and refugee children rebuild their lives,” he said.

Eric Adams, Mayor of New York, and Ruvindrini Menikdiwela, Director of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees/UNHCR, were other attendees at the event, which witnessed his most special moment when Mary Maker, a refugee and activist from South Sudan, She shared with us his personal experience in a refugee camp in Kenya and the importance of education to changing the lives of refugees.