PESHAWAR, June 19: The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) will distribute 1,000 footballs among Pakistani children following the announcement that “FIFA and Unicef are dedicating the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan to children”.

As many as 400 of the footballs, a gift from the Korean Committee for Unicef (KCU), have found their way to children in the North West Frontier Province. These footballs are being supplied by the Pohang Iron and Steel Company. Ten countries would receive 1,000 footballs each.

In this regard, a ceremony was held at Mashal - Centre for Working Children - to hand over some of the footballs to children here on Wednesday.

At the ceremony, Unicef and its partners, Human Resource and Management Centre and the international NGOs, Terre des Hommes and the Norwegian Relief Council, handed over some of the footballs to working children. The ceremony was presided over by provincial minister Athar Minallah and Unicef’s chief provincial officer in NWFP, Zubaida Khatoon.

The statement quoted KCU Executive Director Dong-Eun Park as having said that “following the announcement that FIFA and Unicef are dedicating the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan to children, we decided to promote this by sending footballs to children in need in 10 countries around the world.”

On the occasion, Athar Minallah said, “children are the future of this country and it is important that we all join in to ensure that they get education and opportunities for sports and recreation.

Zubaida Khatoon said: “Physical exercise and the development of a healthy body is very important for learning.”

Unicef’s representative in Pakistan, Carroll C. Long, in a message said: “At this time when the whole world is closely watching the fortunes of the participating teams in the FIFA World Cup, it is good that needy children in NWFP can benefit from a gift such as this.”

Following the ceremony, two teams of children, Mashal-I and Mashal-II, dressed in bright red and yellow T-shirts, played a short match.