Raul receives royal treatment in Senegal visit

Dakar, Nov 29: Captain of both Real Madrid and the Spanish national team, Raul Gonzales made his first trip to Africa on Tuesday (November 28) as a good will ambassador for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.

The trip is aimed at highlighting Africa's ongoing fight against hunger. Around 34 nations in the world face serious food deficiency, of which 23 are in Africa.

Raul became a U.N. ambassador in 2004 but this is first visit to see the work that the United Nations is carrying out on the ground in the developing world.

In a country where almost every boy dreams of becoming a football star, Raul was received like a king.

He made time out of his busy schedule to show the children from the football school a few tricks, and how to take a fall in good grace.

Accompanied by his wife, Carmen Redondo, and his manager, Gines Carvajal, Raul also visited two agricultural development projects in Senegal's capital Dakar, aimed at helping people with very limited resources to produce more food.

While the situation is better in Senegal than in many other African countries, more than a fifth of Senegal's population suffers malnutrition.

Around 3,000 people come to the hospital for infectious diseases in Dakar each year, looking for treatment, out of which around 60 percent suffer from AIDS.

With only 90 beds, the hospital can only admit two thirds of them.

A United Nation's project financed equipment and seeds so that the hospital can grow their own vegetables to feed the patients.

"As you know, caring for people with HIV and AIDS is not only about giving them anti-retroviral drugs, it is not only giving also antibiotics. They are very poor patients here. 85 percent of them they have less than one euro per day. So they are very poor and we set up this micro-gardening here in order to help them to improve their nutritional status," Professor Papa Salif Sow, Head of Infectious Disease Department at Dakar University said.

Similar micro-gardens are also being set up poor inner city areas, where there is a large number of young people and high levels of unemployment.

The United Nations sponsored programme, set near a primary school is focused on women who are trying to feed their families but don't have land of their own where they can grow food.

Mame Penda Diouf is trying to feed seven children. Last year they lost their house due to flooding. Now, at least, the project is enabling her to feed her family.

"The micro-garden gave me new strength because now I don't eat any more food with pesticides. I am eating healthier vegetables, these vegetables don't have any are pesticides."

More than a fifth of Senegal's population is malnourished. Working to improve that statistic, the United Nations spent 105 millions US dollars per year here between 2003 and 2005. Celebrities like Raul will no doubt help them to raise more.