Thirty years of Azulgrana solidarity, through the lens of Kim Manresa

This Thursday, in the gardens of the Palau Robert in Barcelona, the President of FC Barcelona Joan Laporta opened the exhibition “Tant se val d’on venim. Thirty years of the Barça Foundation, through the lens of Kim Manresa.” The show features a collection of the best photos by the Catalan photojournalist over the past three decades, taken during trips made alongside Foundation team members on their visits to the social projects the organisation carries out across the globe.

In addition to Kim Manresa, also attending the unveiling ceremony were Foundation Director General Dr. Marta Segú, members of the FC Barcelona Foundation board of directors and trustees, as well as Beth Valls, Director General for Outreach for the Palau Robert.

The exhibition is made up of 50 visually striking and emotionally charged photographs, featuring children and adolescents from all over the world living in extremely vulnerable situations, whose day-to-day circumstances can include extreme violence, poverty, forced displacement or who live in surroundings hit by severe environmental deterioration. Also appearing in some of the images are seriously unwell children, who have for years received supportive visits from male and female players from the FC Barcelona football first teams and its other professional sports sections, both from current squads and former players. Over the years, former players involved in these projects have included Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Lionel Messi, Javier Saviola, Juliano Belletti, Lilian Thuram, Rafa Márquez, Edmílson, Luis García, Juan Pablo Sorín, Julio Alberto and Seydou Keita, to name just a few. Many of these have been able to see first-hand the challenges being faced by some of the world’s most vulnerable children. Social projects have been implemented in recent decades in countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ecuador, Mexico, Dominican Republic, India, Morocco and Greece, as well as in Catalonia, where the majority of the Foundation’s beneficiaries are based.

This is an exhibition which, aside from reflecting the harsh realities faced by these groups of children, also shows how a sense of belonging to the Azulgrana family has no limits and makes itself visible in every corner of the world through shirts, balls and all manner of Barça-related objects and symbols. It is proof of the Club’s strength and international impact, and of the magical power of sport in general and football in particular - a universal language that helps change lives and which underlines the significance of “More than a club” across the globe.

The exhibition has been held within the framework of it being 125 years since FC Barcelona was founded and 30 years since the Foundation was brought into existence, since that day on 18th July 1994 when then-president Josep Lluís Núñez officially established the FC Barcelona Foundation, whose objectives were mainly based on culture and promoting sport. Since 2004, under the first presidential mandate of Joan Laporta, the Foundation underwent a radical change in direction, turning itself into the soul of Barça and fulfilling the Club’s social commitment to improving the lives of the most vulnerable children and young people at local and international level. One of its most crucial moments came about on 7th September 2006, when the Foundation and the Club signed an historic agreement with UNICEF at United Nations Headquarters in New York. For the first time in history the Barça shirt would display a logo on the front, but rather than a commercial sponsor the one featured would be that of UNICEF, the prestigious international organisation which protects children’s rights.

Sixteen years on from this watershed moment, on 16th June 2022 FC Barcelona and the Foundation laid down a further landmark, in this case alongside the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR/ACNUR), when signing another historic agreement in Geneva to aid the cause of refugees and internally displaced persons around the world. What is more, from that moment on the men’s and women’s first-team shirts also featured the UNHCR/ACNUR logo, at the same time marking the start of projects on four continents aiming to provide support for refugees.

Over these past 30 years, the Foundation has worked in over 60 countries worldwide and over 200 municipalities in Catalonia. The Barça Foundation currently focuses its operations on 14 countries and 106 locations, where it implements a host of projects in the fields of Education and Safeguarding, Health and Emotional Wellbeing and Community Action.