Football star Lionel “Leo” Messi will support Ooredoo in various programmes to improve the life chances of young people in the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asia to help them fulfil their hopes and dreams. At a press conference yesterday, Ooredoo - formerly known as Qtel Group - announced that Messi has been named the company’s global brand ambassador and will support its vision of enriching people’s lives around the world. The Leo Messi Foundation, which the FC Barcelona and Argentina star founded in 2007, has a track record of funding large as well small initiatives to help children in “at-risk situations” in terms of healthcare and education development. As part of the partnership, the foundation will develop and sponsor projects to stimulate human growth and development across Ooredoo’s markets in the Middle East, North Africa and South-East Asia. These youth sometimes have to fight hard to reach their dreams, and both Ooredoo and the Leo Messi Foundation will work to support them achieve their full potential. Dr Nasser Marafih, Group CEO of Ooredoo, said: “We chose to work with Lionel Messi because we believe that football is a shared passion that unites youth in all our countries and that the greatest athletes can play an incredible role in inspiring and enriching young people to make the most of their life chances. All of our markets have a large youth population and Leo Messi is a hero to young people from Jakarta to Doha. Our new brand ambassador shares our belief in human growth and our conviction that all young people should be given the best life chances.” Speaking on his association with Ooredoo, Messi said: “I’m very happy to be working with Ooredoo as we share the same idea that practical steps make a difference. When I visit sick children in hospital, I realise the positive impact public figures can have. It’s exciting to partner with a global group like Ooredoo, which can help extend our foundation’s work to new markets, support communities that need help and enable young people to have the best opportunity to make their dreams come true.” Ooredoo has launched a range of complementary initiatives that support social change across the Middle East and North Africa in recent years, including mhealth services to help people with diabetes, financial services for people without access to bank accounts in Qatar, and mlearning services to support young people’s economic empowerment. In Indonesia, Ooredoo is supporting Indosat’s mobile clinic programme. Since the launch of the programme in 2007, almost 600,000 people mainly living in remote areas have benefited from free health services provided by 16 mobile clinics. In addition to his role with Ooredoo, Messi is global goodwill ambassador for Unicef. Gulf Times

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