Bogotá, Colombia-- "Always believe in yourself and in the dreams you set forth: you can reach them." Martina Hingis, the world-famous tennis champion, inscribed these words on the wall of a home for street children in Bogotá. Thanks to the dedication of a local non-governmental organization (NGO), the home is a place where hundreds of street children learn a profession, regain their self-esteem through dance and drawing and learn to reconcile with a society from which they were excluded and unwanted.
Hingis did not travel to Colombia for a sports tournament but to join in the work of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to let people know that poverty can be overcome.
Hingis is one of the celebrities who joined the communications campaign, "Teams to End Poverty" launched by UNDP to urge companies, institutions, public administrations and individuals to action for halving world poverty by 2015.
"There is always something that one can do to help reduce poverty," says Hingis, who chose to help street children. Escorted by Colombia's First Lady, Nohra Puyana de Pastrana and UNDP's Deputy Resident Representative Freddy Justiniano, Hingis met with street children and representatives of organizations working to help them.
Hingis will return to Colombia to continue helping the street children. Thanks to her visit, UNDP was able to launch an innovative partnership with the government, NGOs and the private sector in Colombia to give the street children of Bogotá a better future.
CHOICES, The human development magazine December 2000.
