At SFS 26, space is also given to topics that go beyond simple football paradigms, looking towards the horizon of those who, very often, cannot even practice sports.
During the session ‘Football on the Side of Children’, the Director General of UNICEF Italy, Paolo Rozera, prompted by moderator Giulia Piscina, immediately focused his attention on the importance of physical activity: ‘Sport is effective in keeping young people in school; when we manage to combine education with sport, the dropout rate is lower. Studying is the only lever we have to make our future better, especially in poorer countries where going to school is not something to be taken for granted.’
Rozera continues: ‘Sport accustoms us to rules, because just to play and follow our passion we are willing to compromise. As UNICEF, we are carrying out a project in Southern Africa aimed at everyone, young people and adults, with the goal of educating both young and old on certain rules that can foster peaceful coexistence.’
To talk about the three-year partnership between UNICEF and SFS, Director General Rozera then went into more detail: ‘SFS is a wonderful organization that helps us develop our projects in the sports realm. 70% of young people are asking for more tangibility: these are young people who want to matter, who brought a party to power in Serbia; not listening to them would be foolish. Together with SFS, we would like to raise at least 150,000 euros to help as many young people as possible. We have spoken with Lega Calcio Serie A to ensure that our idea can reach an ever-wider audience.’
The Director General of UNICEF continues: ‘In Italy, we have more than a million young people below the poverty threshold who cannot afford a football, basketball, or any other sports class. This is where we need to intervene and improve an objectively negative situation. In all its facets, sport helps people, not only physically but also mentally. In fact, in our latest project in Southern Africa, we noticed an exponential decrease in mental health cases.’
Rozera concluded: ‘Do not believe those who say that situations cannot be solved, do not believe those who say it is necessary for someone to go hungry to make everyone else better off. Every one of us must have the same rights, and to ensure everyone has equal opportunities we can do a great deal even with small daily actions, both for companies and for individuals.’
To close this meeting, which in many respects stood out from all the others, moderator Giulia Piscina reiterated the importance of donating, not as a mere duty, but as an act that can truly make life better for many people. UNICEF has always been one of the organizations that most concretely helps people in difficulty, seeking to guarantee them a better future.