Bending it like Beckham for nutrition

“I may not be able to bend it like Beckham, but I definitely can use my voice to support this campaign,” said Deborah Henry, Ms. Malaysia and World Vision Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur on November 25, as she took part in a media event introducing the One Goal campaign for the first time.  “The numbers of children affected are too huge to be ignored – we should all come together around this ‘One Goal’ - Nutrition for Every Child.”

The One Goal campaign will seek to transform the understanding of and response to child nutrition in Asia through the power of football.  The campaign is a partnership between the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), World Vision, Royal DSM, Global Alliance for Improved Nutirition (GAIN) and the Asian Football Development Project (AFDP).

AFC Player of the Year nominee, Ha Dae-Sung, Caption of the FC Seoul team and member of the Korean Republic’s national squad signed an AFC match ball and handed it off to Deborah Henry as a gesture to start off the campaign.  He said, “As a professional footballer at the highest level in the region, I know the importance of nutrition, especially at a very young age.  I am delighted to support and be part of this campaign.” 

Asia is home to close to 200 million malnourished children.  Malnutrition in the early stages of a child’s life can not only affect their growth physically, but also create learning challenges for them when they are in school. 

“Malnutrition is an insidious problem that prevents children from achieving their fullest potential and needs a multi-sectoral response," said Regina Moench-Pfanner, Director for GAIN in Singapore, who was part of the panel addressing the media.

Introducing the One Goal campaign Stuart Ramalingam, Director for Social Responsibility at AFC said, “This is something new for the AFC – a long term social responsibility strategy and the One Goal campaign is our way to make it work for both football and for nutrition in Asia.” 

The campaign’s goals include raising awareness among 400 million people by 2022 around proper nutrition in the first 1000 days of a child’s life, at least 35 national associations to develop national One Goal campaigns, motivating key donors and partners, including governments to invest at least $10 billion for nutrition over the next ten years and significantly contribute to the development of grass roots football.

The media event was part of the AFC Awards pre-event engagement in Kuala Lumpur.

For more information contact Tanya@onegoal.asia.