Drogba’s charity night boosts his Foundation

Didier Drogba’s charity ball, held on Saturday evening at the Dorchester Hotel in London’s West End, raised an incredible £400,000 for his Foundation.
Founded in 2007 by Drogba, the Foundation has been providing financial support across health and education in Africa for nearly a decade. The money raised from this year’s ball, the fourth to be held, will be used to kit out and complete the medical clinic the charity has funded in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s capital. The clinic (pictured below) is due to open its doors later this year.

The Foundation also plans to finance a number of mobile medical clinics that will visit the local villages outside of Abidjan to treat people who are either too sick or cannot afford to travel to the capital.
At the ball, Drogba was joined by team-mates including Petr Cech, Eden Hazard, Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, Juan Cuadrado, Nemanja Matic, John Terry plus Chelsea directors and senior staff, and from elsewhere in the football world, Thierry Henry, Louis Saha, Edgar Davids and Jermaine Defoe were also among the guests. Oscar-nominated actor and star of Blood Diamond, Djimon Hounsou was there too.

Hosted by Sarah-Jane Crawford and Ayden Taylor, the evening saw performances from Grammy-nominated singer Christina Milian who was joined on stage by Drogba and Hazard before Fuse ODG entertained the guests with his top 10 hits.

The main focus of the night was the live auction when guests bid against each other for VIP tickets to the upcoming Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight, among other top lots. Hazard and Ivanovic went head to head in a bidding war for a mod scooter signed by Chelsea’s 2012 Champions League-winning team but the pair were out bid on the night.
Drogba said: ‘I’m always so overwhelmed by the kind generosity and support that we see each time we host these events and Saturday was no exception.’