The UEFA Foundation for Children is committed to improving the lives of children who are most in need by promoting universal and fundamental values such as human dignity, solidarity and hope.
That commitment links the foundation closely to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was adopted by the United Nations on 20 November 1989. The convention comprises 54 articles ratified by the vast majority of the UN’s member states (191 out of 193). It is based on the principle that children are vulnerable beings and are individuals who have the right to be cared for, protected and educated, no matter where in the world they are born, and that children must also have the right to play, to learn and to express themselves.
The convention is of crucial importance, but has sadly not been enough to make children’s rights a reality. War or extreme poverty, but also family problems, social breakdowns, abuse, illness or a lack of education, plunge children and their families into sometimes tragic situations.
The UEFA Foundation for Children is supporting Universal Children’s Day, which provides the ideal opportunity to remember the numerous injustices committed against children all over the world. Since it was founded in April 2015, the foundation has got involved in some major projects, and it aims to continue assisting a large number of organisations working to help disadvantaged children all over the world, because the future for a better world is based on our children.
In the words of José Manuel Durão Barroso, chairman of the foundation and former president of the European Commission: “Children are the single most important thing at stake in the world today. They require strong, collective, immediate action. The objectives of the UEFA Foundation for Children are simple yet ambitious, and characterised by a profound humanity. The foundation aims to come to the aid of future generations in the fields of health, education, integration of minorities, defence of the rights of the child and, of course, access to sport. Together, we must act to guarantee children a future full of promise. Because by acting on behalf of children today we are shaping the society of tomorrow.”
