LUIS FIGO’S NEW GOAL IS STOPPING TB

Famed football star Luis Figo spent World TB Day on Monday, 17 March 2008, raising awareness about TB with a group of high school students in Hackney, London. Afterwards, Figo and these young aspiring athletes played a penalty shoot-out, with the support of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB and former President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio.

The day was marked by the release of the 2008 WHO Global Tuberculosis Control report and also by the launch of a poster campaign featuring Figo as a celebrity spokesman for this year’s World TB Day campaign. The Campaign features the slogan I am stopping TB. The Figo posters will be on display for the next month in the D building lobby. The Stop TB campaign 2008–2009, emphasizes that everyone can do something to stop TB, and that every individual’s action counts.

Figo has been capitalizing on his fame and popularity to raise awareness about TB and the need to fight the global TB epidemic since he was appointed as a Stop TB Ambassador in January 2008. He aims to reach people of all ages around the world with messages about how to stop TB, but he has a special interest in taking the message to young people.

The Stop TB Partnership launched a competition for the design of an educational comic book featuring Figo as the main character. The project’s aim is to educate children and young adults about TB while entertaining them.

The competition will award US$ 5,000 for the best design of a comic book using a script provided by the Stop TB Partnership. It is open to anyone over the age of 18 and will close on 10 April 2008. The comic book will be published by the Stop TB Partnership for worldwide distribution and exhibited at the International Festival of Amadora 2008 and the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée 2009 (Angoulême).

In his native country, Portugal, Figo is considered by many fans to be second only to Eusebio as Portugal’s greatest player of all time. He was the 2000 European Footballer of the Year and the 2001 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), World Player of the Year and was named among the FIFA 100. He plays as a midfielder and winger, currently for Internazionale in Milan, Italy. In 2003 he founded the Luís Figo Foundation, which seeks to help enhance living conditions and opportunities for disadvantaged children and young adults, helping them to develop their potential through sports.