UN REFUGEE AGENCY TEAMS UP WITH INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE IN CLOTHING DRIVE

UN REFUGEE AGENCY TEAMS UP WITH INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE IN CLOTHING DRIVE
New York, Jul 9 2007 10:00AM
The United Nations refugee agency is joining forces with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in their second "Giving is Winning" campaign aimed at collecting sportswear for distribution to refugees and displaced people around the world.

IOC President Jacques Rogge started the ball rolling by handing over a bag full of sports clothes to Marion Hoffmann, UNHCR representative for Mexico, Cuba and Central America, during the official launch ceremony in Guatemala City on Friday.

The campaign, which is linked to next year's Beijing Olympic Games, has set a target of filling 10 containers -- each 20-foot wide -- with sports clothes to be distributed in 10 different camps.

The first "Giving is Winning" campaign coincided with the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and gathered nearly 30,000 items of sports clothing distributed to refugees across three continents.

"We saw in the course of the first 'Giving is Winning' campaign in Athens in 2004, just what a difference the Olympic Games made to the daily lives of refugees," Ms. Hoffmann said, referring to youngsters who followed the games in camps around the world. "The glory of sports rubbed off on them and made them feel important."

UNHCR and the IOC said three National Olympic Committees are already on board with the drive and have made donations that will help refugees in camps in Chad and Rwanda.

"We will continue, through different activities, to assist those who are ravaged by war and disease, disadvantaged and marginalized," Mr. Rogge pledged.

2007-07-09 00:00:00.000

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