The campaign by Education Above All invites tens of thousands of football fans in Doha to learn about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and how they can play a role in achieving them at their pavilion in the FIFA Fan Festival
The Education Above All Foundation (EAA) is celebrating the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) throughout the 2022 FIFA World Cup under the “Scoring 4 the Goals” campaign.
Launched on Monday, the initiative invites tens of thousands of football fans at the FIFA Fan Festival at Al Bidda Park to learn about EAA’s efforts in providing refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP’s) with access to education.
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, EAA’s chairperson of Education, and Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani were also in attendance at the campaign’s launch.
Visitors will get the chance to play and learn at a building designed by the late renowned architect Zaha Hadid, which also replicates a classroom designed for the targeted communities. The campaign urges visitors to take part in promoting the SDG on social media, using the hashtag #ActNow.
Some of the events include a parachute show, live music performances, art installations, football workshops, and many others.
In addition, there is an immersive art exhibit which will allow fans to learn more about the SDGs and the importance of achieving them, ‘More Sustainability, Less Waste’.
“Our commitment to Sustainable Development is a commitment of faith in the future and a message of hope to the world. Achieving the SDGs is fundamental to building a better world for all of us, and what better time to come together and do so than here and now, at this World Cup,” said Fahad Al-Sulaiti, EAA’s CEO.
Al-Sulaiti highlighted the important role of sports in uniting communities and starting much-needed conversations, urging “humanity to also come together as one team and score for sustainable goals”.
The pavilion had already received important diplomats from around the world, including Rwanda, Senegal, Canada, Mexico, Liberia, and other countries.
Some influential figures also paid a visit to the EAA installation, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, and World Health Organisation Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The EAA campaign is a joint effort with its key partners, including UNICEF, UNESCO, UNHCR, the Forest Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, the World Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank.
EAA noted in a statement that the campaign is an opportunity to unite and celebrate after the world lived under the unprecedented challenges caused by Covid-19’s outbreak, which reversed the SDG’s gains.