YB Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, the Sports Minister of Malaysia, and Dr Edwin Moses, the Chairman of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, attended a sport legends football tournament in which Laureus and Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M) jointly announced an innovative partnership to benefit young people in Malaysia through the use of sport.

The co-operation plan was unveiled during the Laureus All Stars Unity Cup exhibition football match at the Royal Selangor Club, on the eve of the 2014 Laureus World Sports Awards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Sports Minister and Edwin Moses were joined by YR1M trustee Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin, Laureus World Sports Academy Member and England football legend Sir Bobby Charlton and Ung Su Ling, Chief Executive Officer of YR1M.

Edwin Moses announced at the event that the global Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which currently supports more than 140 sports-based community programmes in 34 countries, would be developing projects in Malaysia, in collaboration with YR1M, as an ongoing legacy for the country, following the Laureus World Sports Awards.

Laureus and YR1M will form a partnership that will focus on Laureus transferring its successful methodologies to YR1M through proven training programmes and skills development exercises designed to bring sustainable benefits to Malaysian youth.

Laureus and YR1M have also agreed to stage a Laureus Sport for Good Summit in Kuala Lumpur later in the year to provide members of the Laureus global network with the opportunity to share knowledge, compare techniques and learn from one another to ensure that the best possible sports-based youth development programmes can be delivered to young people around the world. The Summit will bring more than 150 young people, sports practitioners and development leaders to Malaysia to enable local sports organisations to learn from the global community.

Dr Moses said: “Laureus is not just about the Awards Ceremony, exciting as that is, it is also about the year-round work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which uses sport to improve the lives of young people around the world. This is the 15th year of Laureus, and we have helped millions of youngsters in that time.

“Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia is the Laureus CSR partner and over the last few months both I and other Laureus Ambassadors have visited events organised by YR1M and seen the amazing work that they do. We are truly delighted to be working with such excellent partners and we hope our activities will make a difference to young people in Malaysia in the future.”

Dato’ Sri Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, welcomed the valuable co-operation between YR1M and Laureus and expressed hopes that Malaysia will benefit from the vast reservoir of knowledge and experience that Laureus brings to this CSR partnership, with its 15-year track record of humanitarian activities. Many of these sports legends will serve as role models for young people in Malaysia. The Prime Minister also expressed his hope that Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia will continue its efforts to improve the quality of life for young people in Malaysia and shares with Laureus the belief that sport can break down barriers and help individuals and communities for the better.

Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Su Ling said: “It was great to be able to join Edwin Moses and Sir Bobby Charlton to make this important announcement. These are true giants of the sports world and it is a pleasure to be able to work with them and other great Laureus sportsmen and sportswomen in the future to help young people in our country.”

Utilising the power of sport, Laureus Ambassadors will inspire and encourage local youth at a grassroots level by engaging in a series of visits to Laureus-YR1M projects in Malaysia over the next three years.

Edwin Moses and Sir Bobby Charlton are members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, a unique collection of 46 living legends of sport, who volunteer their time to act as global ambassadors for the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, whose mission is to use sport as the means to combat some of the world’s toughest social challenges facing young people today such as juvenile crime, gangs, HIV/AIDS, discrimination, social exclusion, lack of education, landmines awareness and health problems such as obesity.

The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation helps children from the slums of Mumbai to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the minefields of Cambodia. It attempts to improve the quality of life in the poorest areas of Nairobi as well as the disadvantaged inner city areas of the developed world. Laureus-supported projects demonstrate every day the dramatic successes that sport can achieve with young people coming off drugs, leaving gangs, entering education, finding jobs, gaining confidence, getting fit, making friends and stepping up to become positive role models in their communities.

Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia is a charitable foundation dedicated towards benefitting Malaysians from all walks of life in line with the principles of 1Malaysia. The Foundation’s activities are geared towards engaging and helping Malaysians, particularly the less fortunate and those in need, and to equip them with building blocks to achieve a better quality of life. Towards this end, the Foundation focuses on three areas – improving quality of life, education and sport.

The 15th Laureus World Sports Awards recognise sporting achievement during the calendar year 2013. The winners, as voted by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, will be unveiled at a globally televised Awards Ceremony staged at the Istana Budaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, tomorrow evening (Wednesday, March 26).

Proceeds from the Laureus World Sports Awards directly benefit and underpin the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation. Since its inception, Laureus has raised over €60 million for projects which have helped to improve the lives of millions of young people.