MAYURI MEI LIN
Telecommunications giant Smart Axiata and World Vision yesterday launched the “One Goal” football program aimed at encouraging underprivileged youth from three provinces to use the sport as a safe and healthy outlet for character development.
The “One Goal” pilot project, open to 300 youths from each province, will run for 12 months and will be split into two types of activity, namely life skills sessions and football training sessions. Life skills sessions will focus on helping participants be more self-aware of risks involved with alcohol, drugs, migration and trafficking, while football training will be geared towards providing the youth a healthy outlet to develop teamwork.
Smart and World Vision aim to hold national and provincial tournaments across Cambodia and engage thousands of Cambodians – be it participants or spectators. However, they stopped short of naming the three provinces they will start with.
“World Vision exists to empower families and communities to create a better world for children, and this is done through repairing and transforming relationships at all levels of society – within the family, within the community, and within a nation.
“We believe Smart’s mission of connecting people all across Cambodia is one that is absolutely beneficial for the development of this nation. Because at its core, relationships require communication and connection,” World Vision national director Jason Evans said in a press statement.
Smart Axiata chief executive officer Thomas Hundt echoed Mr. Evans’ statement, adding that the project will empower Cambodians to make their communities more sustainable through the increasingly popular sport of football.
“We hope to score this one great goal to offer vulnerable children an opportunity of new hopes and dreams,” he said.
Should this project prove to be successful, Smart and World Vision will look to scale up “One Goal” nationwide.
Smart has also teamed up with UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport to improve access for all to education in the Kingdom. “UNESCO is working very closely with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, and Smart had decided to team up with the UN agency as an exclusive partner in the education sector to support all programs that UNESCO is planning to introduce and implement in the next couple of years,” Mr. Hundt told Khmer Times.
“We believe that education is the key to prosperity. It is the key to getting Cambodians out of poverty and it is making tremendous changes everywhere. We are really committed to it [education] that’s why we have signed this long-term strategic partnership with UNESCO,” he added.
“It’s still a big effort to increase the literacy rate in the country and it’s an ongoing effort by UNESCO and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, in partnership with Smart, to tackle the problem.”
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