Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

U.N. asks Olympians to donate clothes

|
|
 
  
Published: Aug. 6, 2008 at 5:58 PM

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Olympians have a chance to be winners to refugees through a U.N. program in which Olympians donate their sportswear, the United Nations said.

The "Giving is Winning" program, which encourages athletes to donate surplus sportswear to refugees in Asia, was initiated last week by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Olympic Committee at the Olympic Village in Beijing, the United Nations said in a release.

"The gift of sportswear from Olympic athletes around the globe inspires refugees and connects them to the world of sports," High Commissioner Antonio Guterres said. "Beyond happiness it brings them hope."

In the weeks before the Games, which begin Friday, some 50,000 articles of clothing have been collected and distributed to refugees in Rwanda, Tanzania, Chad, Moldova, Georgia and Panama.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said he hoped many more items could be collected because "the bigger impact we can make with this campaign, the better."

The initiative was first set up for the 2004 Athens Olympics, when more than 30,000 items were collected for refugees in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Kosovo and Tanzania.

Recommended Stories
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters