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Mobile operators to deliver world’s largest cause-related campaign in support of universal education at the FIFA World Cup 2010

Her Majesty, Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan joined the GSMA today to announce the 1GOAL: Education for All mobile campaign, the world’s largest cause-related campaign ever undertaken. 1GOAL is an initiative to ensure that every child in the world has the opportunity to go to school by 2015. Today, 72 million children in the world are denied that chance, and do not have access to basic primary education.

Operators from across the mobile world have joined forces with global football stars, the football world and FIFA, along with educational champions, charities and campaigners to support 1GOAL – a legacy of the FIFA Football World Cup 2010 - to give all children in the world the chance in life an education brings.

Operators serving more than 1 billion mobile users will deliver an international mobile communications campaign of unprecedented reach that combines the platform of the world’s biggest sporting occasion with the world’s largest medium, to harness public support for 1GOAL.

From the GSMA’s Board, founding operator supporters of the mobile campaign include: AT&T Wireless, Axiata Group Berhad, Bharti-Airtel, Hutchison 3 Group, KT, MTN, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., Orascom, SingTel Group, Smart Communications, SOFTBANK MOBILE, SK Telecom, VimpelCom and Zain Group. Additionally operators including Batelco Group of the Middle East, CSL of Hong Kong, Mobitel of Sri Lanka and Umniah of Jordan have joined the 1GOAL mobile campaign in recent days.

The campaign provides the platform for millions of citizens globally, to show their support for 1GOAL. It launches on April 20th and runs up until the World Cup final in South Africa on 11th July.

“We are grateful for the GSMA’s leadership and partnership in creating this campaign,” said Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, Co-founder and Co-Chair of the 1GOAL initiative. “I want to thank each and every one of you here today who has joined the 1GOAL team and who’ll reach out to subscribers with a message, an app, or a widget. 1GOAL is about people-power… the largest ever, never-before-done, cause-related campaign of its kind. And I hope that those of you in the mobile ecosystem who haven’t done so, will join up and sign up before our kick-off in April.”

“Our board has recognised the role, responsibility and reach of mobile in harnessing global support for universal education, a critical part of the UN’s mission to eliminate world poverty,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. “As a result, today we announce a collaborative campaign that is unprecedented in our industry, utilising the scale of the world’s largest medium to make a real difference to the future for millions of children in the world.”

“As the South African football team captain and on behalf of my team and the children of Africa, thank you to the worldwide mobile team that has signed up so far to support 1GOAL," said Aaron Mokoena. "This will be the year that the mobile fraternity and football joined hands for the greatest of events, and the greatest of causes; Education for all."

World leaders are meeting during 2010 to discuss their ongoing commitments to education for all and the 1GOAL mobile campaign will enable tens of millions of people to let those leaders know that education for all can help end world poverty.

The mobile campaign – coordinated by the GSMA - will comprise a host of mobile communications tools, including mobile advertising, applications and messaging. The GSMA & 1GOAL will provide the marketing tools and innovative football-related content to operators and others in the mobile ecosystem that support the campaign. It will enable millions of people to sign up, via a host of mobile response mechanisms, demonstrating to global leaders and the UN that universal education is a universal demand.

About 1GOAL: Education for ALL
In 2000, 164 world governments came together to create the UN Millennium Development Goals. 2 of the 8 goals involve ending poverty through providing education for all:

• To ensure that all boys and girls complete primary schooling by 2015.
• To ensure that girls have the opportunity for education at all levels by 2015.

They promised to make sure there was enough money and that the policies were in place to make it a reality. Since then many countries have abolished school fees, spending was increased by $4 billion and an extra 40 million children are now going to school.

1GOAL is an initiative to mobilise support to hold world leaders to these promises for 2015. 1GOAL is run by the Global Campaign for Education and is part of a large global education initiative: the Class of 2015, http://www.classof2015.org.

The campaign, launches on April 20th 2010 and will run up until the World Cup final on July 11th will engage and mobilise the World Cup audience through films, digital & print channels globally, involving some of the biggest Broadcasters, Sponsors, Players, Teams And Nations In The World.

Ahead Of Launch Individual Supporters that have signed up for 1GOAL, Include: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah Of Jordan; Co-Founder And Global Co-Chair, Jacob Zuma, President, South Africa; Hillary Clinton US; Secretary Of State; Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero; President, Spain; Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, UK; Ban Ki-Moon; Secretary-General, United Nations; Kevin Rudd; Prime Minister, Australia; Sepp Blatter; President, FIFA; Bono; Eusébio, Portugal; Gary Lineker, England; Josep Guardiola, Barcelona; (Manager); Marcel Desailly, France; Mia Hamm, USA; Michael Essien, Ghana; Rio Ferdinand, England; Robin Van Persie; Netherlands; Robinho, Brazil; Thierry Henry, France; Tim Cahill, Australia; Tim Howard, USA; Zinedine Zidane, France, among many others.

About the Global Campaign for Education & Class of 2015
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is the co-ordinator and founding member of the Class of 2015 and 1GOAL. GCE is a network of major non-governmental organisations (NGOs), teachers' unions and civil society in more than 120 countries, founded in 1999. Every year GCE runs a Global Action Week promoting access to education as a basic human right and campaigning for urgent action on education, with more than 10 million people taking part. www.campaignforeducation.org.

The Class of 2015 was launched at the UN summit in New York in September 2008. Class of 2015 launch signatories include Bono, Sir Bob Geldof, Gordon Brown, Jose Manuel Barroso, Robert Zoellick, Kevin Rudd, Queen Rania as well as the leaders of many charities and teaching trade unions. The full list can be seen at: http://www.classof2015.org FIFA joined the Class of 2015, with a pledge from Sepp Blatter for the 2010 World Cup to leave a lasting legacy of education in Africa and the rest of the world.

Source: Business Wire India

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