UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and former soccer star Weah visits Sierra Leone

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador and former award-winning international soccer star George Manneh Weah is visiting Sierra Leone to raise the profile of HIV/AIDS prevention programmes among young people in the West African country, as well as among Dutch donors.

The Liberian-born Mr. Weah, who won the Golden Ball Award for the best player on a European team and the Italian National Championship as a member of the Italian club AC Milan, is accompanied by former international soccer star Ruud Gullit of the Netherlands.

The two are staging two days of soccer activities, which are being filmed by a team of Dutch television journalists to publicize the fight against the pandemic for the UNICEF National Committee of the Netherlands and the Dutch lottery. The Netherlands contributes millions of euros annually to UNICEF and other humanitarian causes from the National Postcode Lottery.

Mr. Weah, whom South Africa's Nelson Mandela named "African Pride," was a very poor child who started off playing soccer with balls made from rags in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

He has worked intensively on anti-HIV/AIDS projects in Ghana and Liberia. He plans to visit Liberia next week to continue his activities helping to reintegrate into society the former child soldiers who took part in the country's fierce 16-year civil war.