UNICEF Ambassador and NBA player Pau Gasol is launching the storybook app Give A Day. Narrated by Gasol in three languages—English, Spanish, and Catalonian—this tale promotes child rights and will raise funds for UNICEF programs through Pau’s Project, an initiative that supports education and nutrition programs in Africa.
“This story is about helping children overcome life’s greatest challenges, which is what UNICEF does every day in its work throughout the world,” said Gasol. “Together, we can help change the lives of so many children who need our support to survive and develop.”
Written by Carmen Gil and illustrated by Emilio Villalba, the main characters of Give a day are David and Kolobo, two children who live very different realities. Through them, the story highlights values such as friendship, cooperation, and the construction of a fair world for all children. The story of David and Kolobo is available now for iPhone, iPad, and Android smartphones and tablets.
PlayTales, an award-winning children’s interactive book app developer, developed the original idea for this project, bringing together authors and providing UNICEF with technological capacity and channels for the implementation of the project.
Using a dynamic format, the story highlights the difficult situation that so many children are going through and how we can help change it. Give a day can be downloaded in all three languages for $1.99 through PlayTales bookstore, available in iTunes and Google play. The funds raised will support UNICEF child survival programs.
The launch of the storybook is linked to two of Gasol’s initiatives for UNICEF: the Donate 1 Day campaign and Pau’s Project. Alongside UNICEF Ambassador Ana Duato, Gasol is the face of the Donate 1 Day campaign which has already generated more than 810,000 donated days against child malnutrition.
Pau’s Project
Gasol became a UNICEF Ambassador in 2003. After several years of supporting awareness campaigns and fundraising initiatives, in 2010 Gasol became involved in Pau’s Project, an initiative that began in Ethiopia and has been featured in a documentary produced by the Spanish TV channel laSexta.
Pau’s Project supports Schools for Africa, an initiative of UNICEF, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and The Hamburg Society, to promote education for all, with a special emphasis on girls, orphans, children living in extreme poverty and other vulnerable children.
Pau’s Project has already supported the education of 12,000 children in Ethiopia through the construction of schools and water and sanitation facilities, training of teachers and facilitators, and provision of equipment and materials for classrooms.
In addition to education initiatives, Gasol also supports child survival programs. Pau’s Project has contributed to the prevention and treatment of malnutrition in Ethiopia and provided support for the humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa during the Eurobasket celebrated in Lithuania.
