If you’ve had a pair of functional eardrums (or even just the one) in the past 12 years, you’ll presumably have heard of Roger Federer. No tennis player in history has won more men’s grand slam singles titles, and nobody has spent longer as the men’s world number one player. Plenty of tennis experts have concluded that he’s the greatest player that there’s been.

But despite their feats of excellence, lots of sports icons aren’t universally loved. Maybe they bite their opponents, maybe they take banned drugs and then go on television to say that they don’t take banned drugs. But Roger Federer? People love Roger. He’s a gentleman, and he plays tennis the way it’s supposed to be played. He’s won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award (voted by his fellow players) a record 10 times, and the London School of Marketing just announced him as the world’s most marketable sports star.

But enough of the tennis

It’s time to talk about what Roger Federer has done that, to me, makes him even more of a champion.

People know him as a Swiss tennis star, but did you know that he also holds a South African Passport? Roger’s mother Lynette is South African, and Roger spent a lot of time in South Africa as a kid. And even though he rose rapidly through the ranks of professional tennis courtesy of a jam-packed worldwide schedule, he didn’t forget about southern Africa and its people.

Over a decade ago, aged 22, he set up the Roger Federer Foundation, and the main focus of the foundation is to improve education opportunities for kids in southern Africa (currently Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Namibia). This part of the world is packed with stunning landscapes and charming people, but there are millions of people living in extreme poverty. There are kids missing out on an education entirely, as well as kids who are getting some education, but at schools that just don't have the resources to enable young people to achieve their full potential. It's a waste of human talent, and it makes it really hard for communities to break the cycle of disadvantage and poverty.

The Roger Federer Foundation works by partnering with local communities and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to improve the standard of basic education in communities. The programs being supported by the Foundation have already reached over 200,000 kids. Success is measures by whether enrolment rates, learning performance, and absenteeism improves in the schools. The results so far are very promising, and give hope of making a significant long-term impact. Speaking of which, the Foundation has set itself an ambitious goal of supporting one million children children by 2018. It's an amazing result for a foundation started by a 22 year old tennis player.

Briefly back to the tennis (then to Malawi)

Less than two weeks ago, Roger Federer played in the 2015 Wimbledon final, and despite coming in with fantastic form, couldn't get past Novak Djokovic to claim yet another grand slam tournament win. But he remains a force in tennis, and with form like that, there's nothing to say he can't win the upcoming US Open. So what did Federer choose to do between tournaments? Well, he went to Malawi to connect with his Foundation's work in schools there.

There, he had the opportunity to see the results and impact of the ongoing early childhood education initiative in the country firsthand. He attended the launch of the Lundu Model Community Based Childcare Center and was able to enjoy time interacting with the children and community members in two other centres. The Roger Federer Foundation started the initiative 2011 together with its local partner Action Aid Malawi. So far, the program includes 50 model centres and 160 smaller satellite centres in six districts of the country, reaching out to a total of 34,000 children.

It's inspiring stuff, and great to see that Roger Federer wants to change more than just the tennis world, but the lives of people who aren't getting the opportunities they deserve. His work isn't going unnoticed in southern Africa, either. In 2011, a South African poll rated Federer as the second most trusted and respected person in the world, behind only Nelson Mandela. The pope at the time came in at number 26.

To me, Federer's work is a fantastic example of how people can use their own time and effort to help to end extreme poverty, and be a global citizen. The rest of us aren't Roger Federer, but your voice is so important, too. Here on Global Citizen, we're committed to providing you with ways to take action and have a positive effect on the lives of people living in extreme poverty today. Together, everything is possible.

TopicsEducationAfricaarticle

Editorial

Defeat Poverty

Roger Federer: a champion who also plays tennis

By Michael Wilson