New York/Cape Town, June 14 (IANS) United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) goodwill ambassadors Didier Drogba and Zinedine Zidane have launched a new drive, coinciding with the FIFA World Cup, to ‘kick off’ poverty.
The two soccer stars have appealed to the people to join the cause as part of the anti-poverty programme through a TV spot.
‘There can be no spectators in the fight against poverty,’ said Ivory Coast captain Drogba, the Chelsea striker.
‘We all need to be on the pitch to improve the lives of millions of poor people in this world.’
The multilingual public service announcement will be broadcast during the ongoing World Cup in South Africa and aims to bolster efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the eight internationally-agreed targets being reduction of poverty, hunger, maternal and child deaths, disease, inadequate shelter and gender inequality by 2015.
Zidane, a former French captain asked people to show the same passion in supporting their cause to fight poverty as they show in the World Cup.
‘The World Cup brings people around the globe together to support their national teams, and we need the same kind of passion to end poverty and hunger,’ said Zidane.
‘The 2015 target for the MDGs is a few years away, so the time to make a difference is now.’
Zidane and Drogba’s video can be viewed on UNDP’s new football site, www.kickoutpoverty.org.
