Ruptly
"Looking ahead to the FIFA 2026 World Cup and amid the fever for collectable cards from the tournament, a trading group born in Cordoba turned a passion for soccer into a network of solidarity on Monday, helping children with disabilities and cancer patients fill their albums and socialise with one another. Footage shows children of different ages exchanging their duplicate stickers to help each other complete the FIFA 2026 World Cup album. The initiative began spontaneously around the Patio Olmos shopping centre, one of the city's busiest spots. There, entire families and groups of friends began gathering to exchange duplicate cards and complete the traditional sports albums, avoiding the high cost of buying packs to get the missing images. Behind the project is Nelson Rojas, a 63-year-old merchant and founder of the Group Olmos, a community that, in a few years, went from being a simple exchange space to a meeting point marked by inclusion and social support. "I realised with this being at Patio Olmos, that there was a great need for people to complete the albums. That's where Group Olmos was born, and we created this beautiful thing we have here today," said Rojas. As the gathering grew, the group began to receive more families with children with disabilities, parents, and therapeutic companions. The organiser observed that the meetings not only served to obtain hard-to-find cards but also to stimulate communication, socialisation, and the children's integration in a friendly and participatory environment. "The best part of all this is the joy of the kids when they complete the albums," Rojas remarked. The experience led the founder to use the passion for albums and sports cards as a tool for emotional support for children hospitalised, aiming to create moments of distraction and joy during long hospital stays and medical treatments. "The idea of donating albums for kids undergoing cancer treatment was something personal for me. [...] I said, 'Well, let's do something different with the group that distinguishes us in the country,'" he added. The FIFA 2026 World Cup, hosted across the United States, Canada and Mexico, is set to be the largest in history, featuring 48 teams across 104 matches. Panini's official sticker album for the tournament has become one of the most sought-after collectables in Latin America, with fans of all ages gathering to trade duplicate stickers and complete their collections."
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