Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, Ooredoo Chairman and Leo Messi.
Barcelona: Football star Lionel Messi finds a great opportunity to serve needy youth by working together with Ooredoo, formerly known as Qtel Group.
The group recently announced Barcelona FC star Messi and Qatar’s national sport hero Nasser Al Attiyah as the company’s new brand ambassadors.
In this role, Messi will be supporting Ooredoo in various programmes for young people in the Middle East, North Africa (Mena) and South-East Asia to help them fulfil their hopes and dreams.
“I’m very happy to be working with Ooredoo as we share the same idea. When I visit sick children in hospitals, I realise the positive impact that public figures can have,” said Messi during a press conference held in Barcelona, yesterday.
“It’s exciting to partner with a global group like Ooredoo, who can help extend our foundation’s work into new markets, to support communities that need help and support young people to have the best chance to make their dreams come true,” he added.
The Leo Messi Foundation, which he founded in 2007, has a track record of funding initiatives, both large and small, to help children in at-risk situations related to 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.
The youth sometimes have to fight hard to reach their dreams, Ooredoo and the Leo Messi Foundation will work to support them achieve their full potential.
Dr Nasser Marafih, Group CEO, 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 through 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, and we’re proud to be working with him,” he added.
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.
The Peninsula
