2002 World Cup - Global

Several well-known World Cup players will serve as spokespersons for UNICEF's "Say Yes for Children" campaign. Children and teens wearing "Say Yes for Children" tee-shirts will escort World Cup players onto the field. Furthermore, the UNICEF website has gathered stories from around the world about the benefits of football. According to one of the stars of the Italian national team in a television spot promoting the right to play: "In a world where there are one hundred million children without any rights - not even the right to play - which side are you on?". At the UNICEF website, football supporters can find details about how UNICEF is helping children around the world through football, as well as the opinions of top footballers on UNICEF's efforts. There is also an online auction, in which star World Cup players will auction football gear, from May 27 2002 until the end of the tournament. Proceeds from the auction, sponsored by FIFA, will go to UNICEF to help in its efforts to improve the welfare of children worldwide. The bidding, which will last from five to ten days per item, will be conducted along the lines of standard online auctions and is open to the public at a World Cup auction page on the Yahoo website.

This initiative uses the game of football in other ways, from helping children recover from trauma to encouraging their physical and emotional development. It also sees football as a valuable educational tool, a familiar setting in which to bring potentially life-saving information to hard-to-reach youth. For example, in Nairobi, Kenya, young people spend an afternoon playing football and then get a lesson on safe sex and HIV from peer educators. In Brazil, UNICEF programmes integrate sports into curricula for extended school days. In Senegal, young girls are encouraged to play football. In Afghan refugee camps, many children are enabled to play football for the first time in their lives. Because the Taliban banned games, UNICEF workers explain to children not just how to play the game but how to interact with other children, especially children of the opposite sex. In Ethiopia, UNICEF supports a football league that conducts HIV/AIDS awareness activities during half-time at matches.

This initiative uses football as a tool to reach children, who, through sport, are taught about teamwork and trust in others, health, and self-esteem. Football is seen as a way to promote a peaceful approach to conflict resolution; a tool for wooing a young body away from the lures of drugs, unsafe sex, or violence; a way to help ensure that young people grow up healthy, fit, and full of self-esteem; and a manifestation of the right to play, as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The programme was organised in response to the fact that, in many parts of the world, children need protection and education. Roughly 120 million children of primary school age are not in school. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 children are killed or maimed by landmines every year. During the 90-minute span of a football match, some 400 young people, aged 15 to 24 years old, around the world will be infected with the HIV virus, some 100 children under the age of 15 will die of AIDS, and another 400 will lose their parents to AIDS. Of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS, more than a quarter are aged 15-24. Half of all new infections occur in young people. By 2010, that number is expected to more than double.