Score the Goals

Score the Goals: Teaming Up to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals is an educational comic book published by the :United Nations on 24 January 2011. The 32-page comic book features ten football players who are all UN Goodwill Ambassadors. The purpose of the comic book published in magazine format is to help the international organization in raising awareness in children - specifically those within the eight to fourteen year-old range - about the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other "life values" such as tolerance, respect, and team spirit. The comic book was launched by the organization from its office in Geneva, Switzerland, namely the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).
Characters
The ten football (soccer) players featured in Score the Goals include Emmanuel Adebayor, Roberto Baggio, Michael Ballack, Iker Casillas, Didier Drogba, Luís Figo, Raúl González, Ronaldo, Patrick Vieira, and Zinédine Zidane.
Millennium Development Goals
The launching of Score the Goals is related to the gathering of world leaders in 2000 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. During that event, 189 member nations adopted the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations. Through the Millennium Declaration, the endorsing nations committed to a global partnership that will reduce extreme poverty. The reduction of extreme poverty was to be implemented through a series of objectives that came to be known as the Millennium Development Goals. The MDGs that will help reduce global poverty by half The publication was made possible through the partnership of different United Nations agencies, namely the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Department of Public Information (DPI), and the Stop TB Partnership. The first ten thousand copies of Score the Goals was printed using recycled paper and vegetable ink at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The printed copies of the comic book were distributed worldwide through the offices of the collaborating agencies and other associates.
Languages
Score the Goals was first launched in three official languages of the United Nations, namely English, French, and Spanish. The title of the comic book in French is Droit aux Buts: Faisons équipe pour atteindre les objectifs du millénaire pour le développement, while the Spanish title is Anota los Goles: Hagamos equipo para alcanzar los objetivos de dessarrollo del milenio. The comic book is now available also in Chinese, German and Korean. It will be published in the future in additional languages, including the two remaining official languages of the organization, namely Arabic, and Russian,.
Significance
Apart from entertaining and teaching children about the Millennium Development Goals - through a fun and interactive method of familiarizing kids and reflect upon the MDGs - the comic book featured educational activities contained in the comic book. Through this educational guide, the children learn about issues and challenges such as how to end hunger, how to educate the public about HIV, and how to provide and maintain universal education, gender equity, maternal and child health, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. According to football star and UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Michael Ballack, he believes that all people should have equal access to information. Ballack hopes that Score the Goals will be able to reach and educate a large number of young readers, particularly about the accurate information on HIV.<ref name=UNAIDS/>

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