Goaaaaaaaaal! Soccer Star Drogba Shoots for UN Millennium Development Goals
Toronto (ots/PRNewswire)
Côte d'Ivoire soccer star Didier Drogba, currently top scorer in the English Premiership and the European Champions League, has become the latest football great to shoot for the United Nations. He will seek to score a different kind of goal in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals.
Drogba, who plays for Chelsea F.C. of the English Premier League has been appointed United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador. He joins soccer legends Ronaldo and Zinédine Zidane in the fight against poverty, one of the eight MDGs adopted by the UN Millennium Summit in 2000 that seeks to slash a host of social ills by the year 2015.
"I don't forget my origins," Drogba said at a ceremony in Geneva yesterday. "I have been given opportunities to succeed in life, but I constantly think about the ones who did not have this chance. We all need to contribute to help defeat poverty."
Born in Abidjan in 1978, Drogba spent his childhood in his native Côte d'Ivoire and his adopted country, France. He led Côte d'Ivoire to its first-ever World Cup final in 2006.
President of CBM Prof. Allen Foster stated, "Sports celebrities such as Didier Drogba will offer tremendous help in raising awareness about poverty"
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 600 million people worldwide live with disabilities of various types, and the number is increasing due to illness, trauma and lack of essential medical services. Of this total, 80% live in low-income countries; most are poor and have limited or no access to basic services, including rehabilitation facilities.
CBM is the leading organisation providing services for people with disability in low income countries of the world and promoting the rights of people with disability. CBM is advocating for the mainstreaming of disability issues into development policies of Governments and other world bodies.
CBM's primary purpose is to improve the quality of life of the world's poorest persons with disabilities and those at risk of disability, who live in the most disadvantaged societies.
Contact:
For further information: Lindsay O'Connor, CBM National Media &
Public Relations Manager, Toll Free: +1-800-567-2264 or
+1-905-640-6464 x 289