- Press Release -

Paris, 16 September 2003 - In the year 2003 A.D., the situation of children who are victims of war grows more desperate by the day. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has decided to come to their rescue by asking Asterix to mobilise every person in the Village so as to be able to offer one year of schooling to those children currently living in refugee camps in Guinea, just on the other side of the Liberian border….

In order to pull off a humanitarian operation of this scale, Asterix suggested that Albert Uderzo donate his favourite drawing, valued at 70,000 euro, for an exceptional auction that is to take place from 22 September to 2 October on eBay.fr, the leading French online auction site. This unprecedented event is doubly remarkable as it is also to present the "artwork" of a number of celebrities from the arts and media world, who have generously agreed to take up their pencils and sketch their impression of Asterix.

Each sketch will start at 60 euro, a minimum amount corresponding to the cost of one year of schooling for a refugee child in the UNHCR camps. Thanks to the public awareness generated by this operation, the UNHCR team hopes to set new records for the benefit of these children, for whom an education offers hope for the future.
Philippe Noiret, Zazie, Smaïn, Cécile de France, Marc-Olivier Fogiel, Christian Clavier, Isabelle Giordano, Inès de la Fressange, Paco Rabanne, Sophie Thalmann, Lorant Deutsch, Derib, Lolita Lempicka, Marie-Anne Chazel, Dieudonné, Alexandre Jardin, Jean-Pierre Foucault, Jenifer, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Laurent Boyer… some forty sketches will be auctioned off in all!

Established in 1951 by the United Nations, the UNHCR is mandated to take international action to protect refugees and to devise sustainable solutions for resolving refugee problems. Today one of the most important humanitarian organisations in the world, the UNHCR comes to the aid of some 20.5 million people in 114 countries. In Guinea, refugees in the camps of Kola, Kouankan, Laine and Nzerekore are primarily people who have fled Liberia. With the crisis in the Ivory Coast, Ivorians have taken refuge at the Nonah camp in Guinea, which is also located in the Nzerekore region. The UNHCR has developed, established and implemented an educational programme in those camps housing Liberians. At the end of the school year in July 2003, Liberian students numbered 11,618 boys and 8,427 girls at both elementary and secondary levels. An educational programme for refugees from the Ivory Coast is to start in October 2003, with an anticipated 1,260 girls and 1,366 boys at elementary level. Boasting more than 75 million registered members, eBay is the world leader for e-business. Founded in 1995, eBay has become a world marketplace where a community of fans, including both private and professional people, can buy and sell goods and services online. 16 million articles in thousands of different categories are up for sale everyday on eBay. Thanks to its many sites throughout the world, eBay makes it possible to buy and sell at local, national and international level.