'The jersey that tells the most stories', FC Barcelona's global campaign to raise awareness of violations of human rights
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, FC Barcelona and the Foundation have launched a global campaign to coincide with the festive period as a show of the institution’s social commitment, and specifically via the Foundation’s activities. This campaign highlights the institution’s social and solidarity approach, and explains why Barça is “Més que un Club”.
The campaign’s slogan is “The jersey that tells the most stories”, a striking story involving an FC Barcelona jersey, the very same that many migrants wear after leaving home in search of a better life due to causes such as war, persecution or poverty. The jersey is a symbol for the stories of millions of people who strive every day to live a decent life.
Many of these people have to walk across great expanses of desert, risk crossing the sea in precarious vessels, and many reach Spain, Italy and Greece wearing the Barça jersey. Others don’t even get there. So much so that in Senegal and other West African countries, there is the expression “Barça or Barzakh” i.e. “Barça or death”. The jersey represents a future, a new life, the fulfilment of the European dream. A dream that unfortunately does not come true for many, as on arrival at their destination, they end up living in refugee camps, detention centres, or they are left marginalised without papers or rights in the destination country.
We use “the jersey that tells the most stories” as the campaign’s core element to denounce the continuing human rights violations happening worldwide, which is a challenge for us all, as we are still a long way from correcting them even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was agreed 75 years ago.
This campaign highlights the Barça Foundation projects and FC Barcelona’s social commitment to defend human rights and support people who are experiencing highly vulnerable situations in society, especially children and young people.
The campaign's content
With the aim of highlighting the FC Barcelona Foundation’s work and their worldwide programmes and actions, “the jersey that tells the most stories” campaign began on 4 January. The campaign will tell the story of these millions of people who seek out a better future and the great number who have done so wearing a Barça jersey. A collective story that is personified by Mamadou Día, a Senegalese man who left his country on a boat and reached the coasts of Europe in 2006. He is now a writer and activist, and he has created an institution called Hahatay in Senegal in collaboration with the Barça Foundation.
The campaign began with the presentation of a silhouette of a Barça jersey inside a methacrylate box at Barcelona’s Plaça de la Universitat. The structure will remain in place on 4 and 5 January, and a QR code can be used to access the campaign video and a link to the Foundation’s website to learn about their work.
The video aims to represent the collective of migrant, refugee and displaced persons, showing a 3D character using the different settings involved with the journey to seek out a better life. This video has also been shown on screens in New York and Tokyo, at such landmark locations like Times Square and the Shinjuku district respectively. The aim is to spread the global impact and raise awareness about FC Barcelona’s commitment to solidarity.
Subsequent dates will see different events take place with the collaboration of the FC Barcelona president, players, activists and influencers, who will spread the message via the Club’s channels and their own networks.
The campaign "The jersey that tells the most stories" will culminate next January 8 with a big event in the port of Barcelona which will be attended by the president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta and the general director of the Foundation, Dra. Marta Segú In this event we will also have a special guest, Mamadou Dia, who will be the protagonist of the campaign.
That same day, the structure containing the symbolic silhouette of the Barça jersey will be placed onto the sea to represent the hazardous journey taken by many migrants worldwide. Furthermore, the structure will also include different panels that will explain Mamadou Dia’s story, plus the stories of different young people who reached Catalonia and are taking part in FC Barcelona Foundation inclusivity programmes.
The Foundation and the human rights cause worldwide
Although it was founded almost 30 years ago, it was in 2003 when the FC Barcelona Foundation became the entity that exercises FC Barcelona’s social commitment and gives meaning to the “Més que un Club” slogan with their social projects. They work to improve the lives of vulnerable children and young people, implementing projects in three main areas – Education and Protection, Emotional Wellbeing and Health, and Community Action – applying a holistic approach to use sport as a tool for social transformation and to convey values.
The commitment to the cause of migrant, refugee, and displaced persons around the world has been significant for years, as this collective experiences the toughest situations. A global alliance with UNICEF was signed in 2006, with the commitment to support infants in different countries worldwide. Work has been done with refugee camps in Greece since 2017, where children and families that had to flee their home countries are given shelter. The 2022 global alliance with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has positioned Barça as a benchmark elite sports club when it comes to the cause of refugee and displaced persons. Work on local programmes throughout Catalonia has been taking place since 2006 to benefit vulnerable children and young people, as well as those at social risk. There have also been programmes to protect children and adolescents from any type of violence during childhood since 2017, both in schools and in the sporting domain.
FC Barcelona and the Foundation developed the Childhood Protection System to prevent, detect early and accompany any child or adolescent who could face/faced any situation of violence.