Tennis star Roger Federer tweeted that he would help the severely suffering Ukrainian children through this tough times and deal with the traumatic experience by providing help to access continued education amidst the war scenario.
On Friday, Roger Federer announced through his twitter handle that he will donate an amount of $500000 via The Roger Federer Foundation for the children in Ukraine suffering from the consequences of Russia’s invasion.
Federer, the owner of 20 grand slam titles, wrote that both he and his family are “horrified” and “heartbroken” seeing the pictures of war-torn Ukraine and the suffering of innocent people. He said, “We(he and his family) stand for peace.”
Federer wrote that The Roger Federer foundation will donate the money to War Child Holland “to establish access to continued schooling for Ukrainian children.” According to an assumption 6 million children are currently out of school owing to the Russia-Ukraine war. Roger said he would like to help the children through this traumatic time by trying to provide “continued schooling.”
Former world number 1, Roger Federer has not played since Wimbledon in the last season due to a knee surgery. The 40 year old Swiss has been looking forward to return to court in the Wimbledon this year, but according to his coach Severin Luthi’s statement earlier this month it is unlikely that Federer will play in the grass court grand slam as he is still in the rehabilitation phase.
Support to Ukraine from various sources
Andy Murray, also a former number 1 tennis player and an ambassador of UNICEF UK announced last week that he would donate his prize money won from this year’s tennis tournaments to provide aid to the suffering children of Ukraine due to Russia’s attack.
The United States Tennis Association(USTA) announced that it would donate 10% of the revenue generated from selling tickets of the best of five qualifiers against Ukraine in the Billie Jean King Cup to relief funds aimed to support Ukrainian people in this crisis. The USTA added that local sponsors will make donations too.
The USTA chief executive Stacey Allaster said that the organisation is looking forward to welcome the Ukrainian team and will continue to see to it that the players will have all the help during and leading to the championship. She said, “Together, we will use this event to continue advocating for peace, along with providing aid and support for the people of Ukraine.”
The Billie Jean King Cup tie between USA and Ukraine will be held on an indoor hard court arena on 15-16 April in Asheville, North Carolina. Earlier this week, the UN Refugee Agency stated that almost 3 million refugees have escaped from Ukraine, about 7% population of the country, since Russia began its attack against Ukraine on February 24 this year.
Published by: Shivani Bhalke
Edited by: Subbuthai Padma
