Dubai: One of the top officials from multinational giant Procter & Gamble has reiterated the company's belief in "making a difference" in the UAE's sports profile in the near future.
"If we had not believed in this programme, then we would not have been here backing such an initiative from the UAE National Olympic Committee [UAENOC]," Al Rajwani, vice-president and general manager for P&G in the Arabian Peninsula and Pakistan, told Gulf News after signing a 12-month agreement with the UAENOC on Sunday.
"The way we see this programme working well is when companies like ours supplement the efforts being made by the governmental programmes that already exist. In this way we think we can play a role. We think we can make a difference to raise awareness and to create a grassroots movement for the youth of the country," Al Rajwani added.
Strategy
The UAENOC and Procter & Gamble signed a 12-month agreement to work with the UAE Athletics Association to implement a plan to scout, train and prepare young UAE nationals to become world-class athletes in order to compete at future Olympic Games through the launch of P&G's ‘Thank You Mom' campaign in the UAE.
"We are the global sponsor for the Olympics for the next ten years and now we want to make it come alive in the UAE through this agreement whereby 10,000 children will get more access to sporting facilities," Al Rajwani said.
"The unique twist that we are bringing is this aspect of ‘Thank you mom' because we feel that it is the mothers who are the ones who make the sacrifices as they raise their children. This 12-month agreement with the UAENOC is only a start of a great partnership for us," he added.
Global plans
"We are convinced about the programme, but this is the first time that we doing such a thing with the UAENOC. We are really looking forward to learning the mechanics and based on this we can make the changes and have the programme even better. And then, we can proceed for a longer term," Al Rajwani said.
"We have signed for ten years globally with the International Olympic Committee and our intention is to see this sponsorship through the full course of ten years. But here, the reason we start with an initial 12 months is to evaluate the programme and see what kind of difference it makes, how it works, go over the mechanics and what can we learn from it. And based on this we can decide the future of this partnership," he said.
"Of course our commitment is for the long term. But with this initial period we want to gauge how it works here before we make a further commitment."
