James Nesbitt OBE
UNICEF UK Ambassador
Jimmy has been an Ambassador since 2005 after being introduced to UNICEF UK through his favourite football team Manchester United.
Football has been a running theme with Jimmy’s involvement with UNICEF UK and he has supported Soccer Aid since its inception in 2006, when he visited Zambia to see our work for children living with HIV and AIDS. Since then Soccer Aid for UNICEF has raised over £38 million for vulnerable children worldwide.
Jimmy travelled to see just how far this money goes, in a documentary for ITV (which aired in 2020). His journey took him to some of the hardest to reach children in the world, from the highest point on earth – Mount Everest – to the lowest point – the Dead Sea. Jimmy saw how Soccer Aid for UNICEF is changing children’s lives with simple and tangible help – shoes for children who don’t have any, teaching equipment for children whose school was destroyed in an earthquake, a football programme to help girls get an education, and vaccines to keep children happy and healthy.
It allows me to use my job to do something that really makes a difference… My trips also remind me, time and time again, how similar children are all over the world.
Whoever I meet and whatever difficulties they face the children are the same. They laugh at the same things – a funny face, a stupid noise – they cry when they fall over.
James Nesbitt, Unicef UK Ambassador
You can help keep a child safe
Jimmy’s time with UNICEF
James has travelled widely with UNICEF, raising awareness and vital funds to keep children safe. His first trip was to India in 2005 to see UNICEF UK funded education projects and he later travelled to Sudan to see our programmes rehabilitating child soldiers.
For Soccer Aid for UNICEF in 2008, he visited projects in Georgia to understand issues facing institutionalised children and for Soccer Aid for UNICEF in 2010 he saw UNICEF UK’s work in Guinea for children living with malaria.
UNICEF’s ‘Every Child Circle’
In 2022 Jimmy became a Patron for our UNICEF Every Child Circle. Members are our very special supporters who commit to make an annual donation of at least £5,000 in support of every child, for at least three years. They receive tailored updates, invitations to exclusive events and a personal contact to answer any questions they have about the work they are so generously supporting. Find out more.
Join Jimmy
We are working tirelessly to protect children everywhere, and give them hope for a happy future. We’re in communities, in refugee camps, wherever we’re needed, to provide education, psychosocial support and safe spaces for them to play and have some much-needed fun.
Join Jimmy in helping us reach more children. Make a donation today.
