Beckham Wants 'Fair Chance' For All Children

Football star David Beckham has urged world leaders to do more to protect children from war, poverty and disease.

He was speaking at the United Nations in New York a day before government heads meet to address the issue of global poverty over the next 15 years.

The father of four, who is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, said: "It breaks my heart to see the struggles that children and young people across the world face every day.

Beckham next to a new UN installation that delivers messages from children

"I've met children and mothers in South Africa living with HIV, I've met children living in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and I've met children who have experienced violence in Cambodia.
"Whatever challenges they face, they all share the same hope for a better future - and we have an opportunity this year… to make that hope real for millions of children."

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He added: "I want a world where children can grow up safe from war, violence, poverty and preventable disease - a world where every child has a fair chance."
In an interview with Sky News' Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley, Beckham said his work for UNICEF has had a profound effect on him.
"It does get moving. I try never to be too emotional in front of families, but when I talk about situations... it really tugs on the heart strings."

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Of the Syrian refugee crisis, he said: "As a father I want children looked after. Whether they are refugees or not, they are humans and they are young children.
"The images we all saw (of the body of a young boy washed ashore in Turkey)... how powerful those images are. That can't happen.
"As a parent to be in a situation where you're pressurised that much, to put your children in a life or death situation - that can't be good."

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He added: "These things have to be changed. It's up to world leaders, it's up to politicians, it's up to countries to come together to really help a situation like this."
Asked if he backed a UN call for Europe to admit more Syrian refugees, he said: "Without a doubt. There's no-one in the world who wants to see what's going on, children lying in sand on the beach losing their lives.”
Earlier Beckham unveiled a digital installation at the UN that delivers messages from children and young people around the globe directly to world leaders.