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(And he's got an awesome sense of humour too)
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With just two days until the kick off of the 7th annual Homeless World Cup—in Milan, Italy—the United Nations have announced their support. As the Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on Sport for Development and Peace, Wilfried Lemke said:
It is with great pleasure that I offer my support to the “Milan 2009 Homeless World Cup”, a football initiative which has been uniting teams of homeless people to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. The Homeless World Cup initiative is an extraordinary example of the application of sport as a tool for community development. The Homeless World Cup has triggered the establishment of over 50 local grass roots projects working with people who are homeless and excluded from society. The impact of the Homeless World Cup has been consistently significant with a large majority of players changing their lives for the better, by coming off drugs and alcohol, moving into jobs, education, homes, training, reuniting with families and some even going on to become players and coaches for professional or semi-professional football teams. Considering the increase in the number of participating teams from 18 national teams in the year 2003 to 48 national teams for the current event in Milan, the Homeless World Cup is well on the way to realizing its vision—a healthy, abundant, confident world where everyone has a home, a basic human right. The initiative has been a very successful means to raise awareness of issue surrounding the homeless and to improve the image of homeless people amongst the general public. The positive impact that this project has been able to have on individuals from more than 70 countries makes it an initiative that deserves any additional support it can obtain. I look forward to a continued collaboration with the Homeless World Cup initiative and wish all participants the very best in this life-changing experience!”
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The Milan, Italy 2009 Homeless World Cup takes place in the Arena Civica, Sempione Park from 6-13 September 2009. For more, please visit homelessworldcup.org.
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The swiftly-gaining-speed rock band Rudely Interrupted was originally formed by Rohan Brooks, a professional musician who was also working as a music therapist/instructor at St. John of God’s Churinga Day Service in Victoria, Australia—teaching the popular School of Rock class to people with disabilities. “Don’t Break My Heart,” Rudely Interrupted’s first single and first music video, took Australia by storm. Since their debut live performance in 2007, “the Rudies,” as they are now known to their loyal (and ballooning) fan base, have captured the hearts and minds of thousands upon thousands of people across the globe, leaving all who see the band perform speechless, amazed and ultimately inspired.
Yeah, but here’s the cool part…
