FCBARCELONA.CAT

December 2007, the trip

In September 2006, when Futbol Club Barcelona sealed its deal with Unicef, one of the most hopeful commitments the club has ever made became a reality.

But an agreement like that means nothing if it doesn’t produce tangible results. And these results have born fruit a year and a half later and 6,000 kilometres away from Barcelona, in Swaziland. A Futbol Club Barcelona delegation led by president Joan Laporta, director Rafael Yuste and members of the Foundation were able to testify that what was put on paper at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York has now been transformed in the form of wells, toilets, medical systems and, most of all, hope.

The FC Barcelona delegation had the chance to meet the protagonists of this harsh reality. They travelled to some of the remotest areas, where under the peaceful atmosphere of the African mountains, the true story of people’s fight to survive hits you hard. There were cases like Moses, a 9 year old child living very close to the Community Support Centre in Mbangarwe. Moses is an orphan living with his grandmother. His mother died when she was breastfeeding, and his father died a few months later. And he also has Aids, and thanks to the help of Fútbol Club Barcelona, he is now receiving antiretroviral treatment.

Siyabonga. That was perhaps the word that best described the trip. It is the Swahili word for ‘thank you’, and was on the faces of all the natives when the president told them: “you are not alone, the Club is thinking of you”. Representatives in the area guaranteed that this aid will help them find the strength to press on with their fight against Aids. But money alone is not enough to win the battle, they also need people with a soul, and Futbol Club Barcelona is able to provide an army of more than 160,000.