IWC Not Just Believers In Time Keeping

Occasionally, a celebrity will do a good deed for charity and we get to hear about it. Many donate money and, while admirable, it is the ones that take time out to learn about their chosen charity, to make that extra effort to do what they can and use their wealth and celebrity for the benefit of others that deserve the ultimate respect.

Whole companies have used their financial backing to support causes they believe in and the International Watch Company is one such company. Watchmakers since 1868, there philosophy has been to renounce mass production and keep to making watches of the highest quality for fewer people.

IWC have continued this philosophy in their support of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation due to their passion for innovative solutions. Rather than run with the masses and condemn youths as yobs who need imprisoning, they seek them out and set up whole projects to help groups of youths around the globe to make improvements in their lives.

Backed by the IWC, the Laureus foundation use sport and education to bring impoverished and delinquent children together to show them that unification can be achieved without the need for gang wars, without the need for drugs and that a future can be built for them, by them.

Think this can't be achieved through sport? Sport is a universal language - look back to the trenches of WW1 on Christmas Day when the opposing factions came together for a friendly game of football in no mans land.

As founding partners, IWC and Laureus aim to get children off the streets, into education and work and to instil hope and faith in their futures. They do this through the medium of sport. With support from famous worldwide athletes, all types of sports are brought into deprived communities and supplied free of charge to the needy children.

They get to meet their sporting heroes and the whole project inspires them to work harder, it builds self esteem, making them want more, making them believe more is possible. It releases the feel good chemicals that give them that buzz that spurs them on to reaching for more goals, creating positive, productive lives.

With financial backing from IWC, Laureus currently have 50 projects under way throughout the world. Tackling issues from gang violence, racial and religious intolerance and youth depression through to slum degradation and HIV/Aids education. They aim to promote social change by giving the poorer communities the incentive and the tools to step up and take control of the direction their lives are going in.

Take, for example, the Fight for Peace project currently under way in Brazil. Many young people have been affected by the violence and drug trafficking throughout Brazil but Laureus has brought education about how this picture can be changed. Boxing and wrestling have been taught to children but to back this up there has also been education on sex, family, employment, human rights, culture and, importantly, how to bring a non-violent conclusion to conflicts.

Work is on-going with local businesses to get young people into work and children back into education, with alternatives supplied for those who cannot afford local education.

Getting children off the streets, teaching them to participate in team activities, how to respect each other and themselves, the importance of playing by the rules as well as offering opportunities for clothing, food, shelter and healthcare are all inspirational features to the projects of IWC and Laureus.

Thanks to the backing of IWC, highlighting the plight of children across the globe and moving for change is an on-going achievement. The last word has to go to Laureus's patron, Nelson Mandela who said 'Sport can awaken hope where there was previously despair'.