Manchester United donates 200,000 pounds children program
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-26 20:37

Manchester United announced Tuesday it will donate 200,000 pounds to help United Nations Children's Fund on an anti-child-trafficking program in China.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United manager, said at a press conference the football team will support a pilot program in southwest China's Sichuan Province to educate children on avoiding falling into the hands of traffickers.

He said the team will also support UNICEF's pioneering Sport for Development work by making contributions like editing football training material to promote children's healthy development and teach important life lessons such as respect, leadership, cooperation and equality.

"We at Manchester United are in a position to give something back to society and I firmly believe we have a responsibility to do so. It is inspiring to see our players using their international profile to deliver important social messages to children worldwide," he said.

Two Manchester United players Ryan Giggs and Dong Fangzhuo from China handed over Sport-in-a-box kits to children from Sichuan and played games with them after the press conference.

According to Dr. Christian Voumard, UNICEF China representative, UNICEF will give these kits to 500 schools in Sichuan and educate them, particularly girls, on trafficking prevention knowledge.

Official statistics show that at least 10,000 women and children are trafficked every year in China. Many girls are sold for commercial exploitation and the victims are getting younger.

Manchester United formed a partnership with UNICEF in 1999 and has raised 1.5 million pounds for UNICEF to help over 1.5 million children worldwide.

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