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SWEDEN / MARTA VIEIRA DA SILVA
STORY: SWEDEN / MARTA VIEIRA DA SILVA
TRT: 1:40
SOURCE: UNDP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: PORTUGESE / NATS
DATELINE: 11 OCTOBER 2010, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
1. Various shots, Marta Vieira da Silva becomes UNDP Goodwill Ambassador
2. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Marta Vieira da Silva, Goodwill Ambassador, UN Development Programme:
“I'm very happy and I'd like to thank the organization the UN for giving me this opportunity to work for a cause I'm very familiar with, that I went through my childhood, a very poor childhood, and I had to fight for my dreams. I had many difficulties also because I chose a sport that, for many people in the word, is a man's sport. I'm very proud to be appointed UN ambassador today and work in something that I've lived, in those difficulties.”
3. Various shot, Marta Vieira da Silva playing with football
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently appointed the world’s top-ranked female football player and Brazilian national Marta Vieira da Silva as a Goodwill Ambassador, to advocate for women’s empowerment as a means to fight poverty.
At a ceremony yesterday (11 October) in Stockholm, Vieira da Silva, known to her fans simply as Marta, said she will promote international efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with a special emphasis on the empowerment of women.
SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Marta Vieira da Silva, Goodwill Ambassador, UN Development Programme:
“I'm very happy and I'd like to thank the organization the UN for giving me this opportunity to work for a cause I'm very familiar with, that I went through my childhood, a very poor childhood, and I had to fight for my dreams. I had many difficulties also because I chose a sport that, for many people in the word, is a man's sport. I'm very proud to be appointed UN ambassador today and work in something that I've lived, in those difficulties.”
The MDGs are a set of eight globally-agreed targets that seek to halve world poverty by 2015 by combating hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment degradation and discrimination against women.
Marta received her credentials as Goodwill Ambassador from the Director of the UNDP Nordic office, Jakob Simonsen. Former Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Jan Eliasson, a recently nominated advocate for the MDGs, also directly welcomed Marta to her new tasks.
Marta won the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year four years in a row, from 2006 to 2009. It was in Sweden where Marta's career flourished, scoring an outstanding 111 goals in 103 appearances between 2004 and 2008. During her time playing for her Swedish club, Marta was named the top scorer for 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. She also won the award for best forward position in 2007 and 2008.
She currently plays with the United States football club FC Gold Pride and has led the club to a championship title. She scored 19 goals in 24 games during this regular season and was the top scorer of the league.
In 2007, fellow football players Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane invited Marta to play in UNDP’s Match against Poverty in Fez, Morocco, where she became the first woman in the history of football to play in an internationally-sanctioned men’s football match.
Marta joins an elite group of UNDP Goodwill Ambassadors, which includes soccer stars Ronaldo, Zidane and Didier Drogba, Japanese actress Misako Konno, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus of Norway, Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova and Spanish actor Antonio Banderas.
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