The UN visits LFC
United Nations Special Advisor Wilfried Lemke joined two UN youth leaders at Liverpool FC's Anfield-based Reduc@te, where the group learned about the work the club carries out in local communities and beyond.
A trip to Qatar in January this year laid the foundations for a strong partnership between the club and the UN, which is primarily aimed at helping children from war-torn and impoverished countries.
Liverpool FC work directly with the UN and last week they invited its Sport for Development and Peace adviser, Mr Lemke, along with youth leaders Jongi Mguga and Themba Dan Chaute, to spend a weekend in the city.
The visitors arrived on Thursday and were given a tour of Liverpool before visiting the club's Kirkby Academy and taking in Sunday's Barclays Premier League encounter.
Yesterday they were at Reduc@te to listen to presentations from Mark Haig of LFC's Action for Health programme and Bill Bygroves, who spoke about Liverpool's work in the community. And for Mr Lemke, the visit was all about learning and exchanging ideas.
"We can now tell the people of the world, very precisely, all about the health schemes that this club runs and the inclusion schemes here," said Lemke. "I learned a lot during the last few days. And much of what I learned are to do with my priorities worldwide serving the United Nations.
"I think we cannot really imagine what kind of opportunity this has been. We found these wonderful, bold young men in the townships of South Africa and you cannot believe the circumstances of how they grew up over the last 20 years.
"We identified them through different organisations and they are working voluntarily with kids in the very, very poor neighbourhoods and they use sport as a tool for development and also for peace, which is very important for the United Nations.
"We want to give these guys the chance to develop themselves and so one day they will become the leader for their neighbourhood.
"Nearly everyone around the world knows the brand of Liverpool. But what is behind the Reds, normally you wouldn't know if you grew up in Malaysia, Japan, Germany or some other places in the world.
"There is a history of this club and there is the priority of work - not only in scoring goals - but in taking care of the people here in the neighbourhood. My work is to spread the best practise models and here we really can see a model that we can copy."
Jongi told Liverpoolfc.tv how it had been a 'dream come true' to make the journey over to Liverpool and spend time at Anfield, the home of the Reds.
"If you had told me 15 years ago that I would meet some of the Liverpool guys and I would go to Anfield or Liverpool, I would have said, 'Me? No way'. It's been a great experience from day one," he said.
"Liverpool are very structured. Liverpool are hands-on. You find that the coaches do go the extra mile to engage with the community. It's very rare to find clubs that are in the same league as them when it comes to doing such things.
"I'm from Khayelitsha, a township just outside Cape Town. We face a lot of crime, drugs and there's a lot of social and health issues. It's also one of the biggest townships in South Africa. It will mean a lot for me to be able to share what I have learnt here with the people from Khayelitsha and to be able to be a good role model."
Themba told Liverpoolfc.tv how delighted he was to see the football club throwing their full weight behind partnerships such as the current one with the UN.
"We are loving it because the club are interested in our communities, which is lovely," said Themba. "Our aim is to help the kids in the communities where we live. To make sure they are doing more and they are dreaming big.
"We want to make it a better place for ourselves, for our parents, for everyone who lives there. The most important thing for me is to become a role model who will create more leaders for our community."