Children in Hue warm-up for football training. Photo Blue Dragon
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The UEFA Foundation for Children and the Blue Dragon Children’sFoundation are working to help Vietnamese street children have moreopportunities by using football as a catalyst for change.
According to the twoorganisations, children in tough circumstances in Vietnam are extremelyvulnerable to abuse and human trafficking.
Thestreets of Hanoi are home to many children from across the country, scramblingto the capital to find work or flee family problems such as violence, drugabuse and poverty.
So both organisations encouragechildren to play football. The goal is not just to promote a healthierlifestyle combined with learning, but also to break the cycle of leaving homeat a young age and entering the labour market.
This project will provideaccess to sports and recreational activities for 1,585 disadvantaged childrenin three provinces in Vietnam.
They will all have the chanceto improve their physical fitness, while also developing life and work skillswhich will improve their employability, thus providing themselves apathway to escape poverty.
AleksanderCeferin, president of UEFA and head of the board of the UEFA’s Foundation forChildren, said football has a great influence for the benefit of society.
In the five years since theUEFA Foundation for Children was set up, about 1 million children havebenefitted from its activities worldwide, while it has provided supportfor projects in 100 countries on all five continents.
Through sport, the foundation is helping to givehope to children from difficult backgrounds to help them achieve their goals inlife./.
