April 24 – UEFA may be concentrating on how it grapples with the effects of Covid-19 but away from the pandemic, today marks the fifth anniversary of the organisation’s Foundation for Children, using football as a tool to aid vulnerable kids particularly in less-privileged parts of the world.
Around one million children have benefitted from the Foundation’s support since it was founded in 2015, assisting 245 projects in 100 countries across five continents.
One of these is at the Za’atari camp for Syrian refugees in the Jordanian desert where 6,000 children practice sport every week.
“Whether it is in refugee camps across the world, the troubled suburbs of European cities or forgotten conflict zones, all the activities supported by the UEFA Foundation for Children have strengthened my desire to see European football assume its role in the social development of young people all over the world,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
The foundation’s general secretary Urs Kluser said using football as a tool for social change “gives them the opportunity to play, forget about their problems for a while, and it helps them succeed in the future.”
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