Chelsea FC footballer Didier Drogba’s charity organisation, The Didier Drogba Foundation hosted its fourth charity ball at London’s Dorchester Hotel in April.
A host of footballers and their wives graced the event, which was held in order to raise funds for impoverished children in Drogba’s native Ivory Coast.
£400 000 was raised on the night.
The star-studded event included a performance by US singer Christina Milian and an appearance by Academy Award nominated actor Djimon Honsou. Fellow footballers lent their support too. Petr Cech, Gary Cahill, John Terry, Eden Hazard, Louis Saha, Edgar Davids and others attended.
“I’m always so overwhelmed by the kind generosity and support that we see each time we host these events,” Drogba said.
The Didier Foundation was founded in 2007 by the Chelsea forward and former Ivory Coast international. It aims to provide financial and material support in both health and education to the African people. It also aims to build schools in Ivory Coast in the future. The inspiration to build a hospital came in 2009 when at a World Cup qualifier, a wall collapsed in the National Stadium claiming 19 lives and injuring 133. Didier visited the injured in hospital and was shocked by the cramped conditions.
The Foundation is currently due to open the doors to its first hospital in Abidjan, Ivory Coast later this year. In addition to the clinic, the foundation plans to finance a number of mobile clinics that will treat people in local villages outside Abidjan that are either too sick or can’t afford to make it to the capital.