Support by Olympiacos to UNICEF, aiming at a better “present” and “future” for children, is limitless. Greece’s biggest club and this huge global Organization walk hand in hand, as it was clearly demonstrated once again Tuesday afternoon. Our team players, Avraam Papadopoulos and Javier Saviola, together with Olympiacos’ Administrative Officers attended the UNICEF 2013 Awards for Children’s rights, in honor of the kids whose works (drawings, newspapers, books, posters and fairy tales) have been selected by the committee as the top ones!
On the eve of the World Children’s Rights Day, the Legend was closed to the children, at the Book’s Arcade (Stoa tou Vivliou) in Athens. Olympiacos’ star players were warmly welcome by both the young and the not so young attendants, inside the arcade where children taking part in the contest from all around Greece came together and showed that Olympiacos is continuously fostering the UNICEF’s cause! Papadopoulos and Saviola were accompanied by Administration officers, aka Vice-president Savvas Theodoridis, F.C.’s Chief Executive Giannis Vretzos, General Director Dimitris Agrafiotis and F.C.’s Press Officer Kostas Karapappas.
Avraam and Javier actually conferred one of the awards! The presented the Mantoulidis Schools (B3 class) with the 1st prize of the contest category “Children writing about drawing their rights”! Young pupils and their teachers warmly thanked UNICEF and Olympiacos for this great honor, whereas panelists were the President of the UNICEF Hellenic National Committee Labros Kanellopoulos, Gerenal Director and Head of Communication Ilias Liberis, Mrs Lola Daifa, Deputy Minister of Education Simeon Kedikoglou and Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the Geneva University ClinicAfxedios Kalagkos. The event was moderated by journalist Pavlos Tsimas.
Everyone stressed how important it is for UNICEF to be assisted in its work by Olympiacos and the fact that the biggest club in Greece and one of the top European clubs does support this great effort. The red-and-white shirt bears this great organization’s logo and thus promotes throughout Europe what UNICEF stands for, and there is also a practical aspect in this support, since Olympiacos fights its own “battle” day-in day-out in order to pool a large amount of money ποσό (more than 2 mil. €) for vaccinating no less than 50,000 children in all countries of the globe, including Greece of course!
Our panel awarded both Dr Kalagkou for his great offer to children of the world (he performs life-saving operations free of charge on underprivileged children) and the Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and All Greece for the Church’s significant humanitarian work.
During the event that lasted more than two hours full of laughter and smiling by everyone, mainly the kids, our team players said a few words about the importance of UNICEF’s work for modern societies, and the link now established between Olympiacos and this great effort.
“It was something really beautiful and moving. We are very proud of participating in this huge event. The President and the entire Olympiacos family deserve to be congratulated for this initiative. Certainly, we will always be by UNICEF’s side. We have already shown, especially in recent years, that we are always next to such major charity events; next to the kids who need us. We will continue doing so and promoting such conduct of ours. We want to display, apart from football, our true self. We are professional football players, but outside the pitch we are simple men and we want to always be next to the children and people who need us”, said our Legend’s captain Avraam Papadopoulos!
From his part, Olympiacos’ Argentinean super star, Javier Saviola, stressed: “These are two completely different issues. We know that these are much more important than football. We are all humans. It was really nice that we attended this event, close to the children who need us. We all know the kind of problems that exist in the world: hunger, injustice against children. So, we do have a heart, we are moved and of course extremely happy to be here and to be able in this way to provide help. I am really interested in charity and offering to my fellowman. I want also to contribute what my parents have given to me and, in any way I can, I want to be close to children”!
