Tennis star Roger Federer visits Malawi school funded by his foundation

Tennis star Roger Federer has spoken about his passion for giving African children the opportunity to go to school.

He travelled to Malawi to open a pre-school funded by the Roger Federer Foundation, which aims to educate one million children in sub-Saharan Africa by 2018.

The world number two, who has won 17 Grand Slam titles in a glittering career, said: “I have always thought children are tomorrow`s future and I really enjoy supporting them and giving them an opportunity to be able to go to school.”

I feel grateful to be able to share time with these amazing kids pic.twitter.com/ijd6mOMIe8

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) July 19, 2015

Roger attended the opening of the Lundu Model Community Based Childcare Centre – the 81st pre-school funded by his foundation.

The Swiss player added: “I am so excited to be back in Africa. My travels for the Roger Federer Foundation have led me to the wonderful country of Malawi where we run a major early childhood education programme.

“I’m very impressed to see the results of our efforts first hand. Thanks to our partner Action Aid Malawi which is doing a great job bringing education to younger children.”

The foundation started the initiative in 2011 with Action Aid Malawi. It includes 50 model centres and 160 smaller satellite centres in six districts of the country, reaching out to 34,000 children.

The Roger Federer Foundation main goal is to support existing, but poor, support services in early childhood care centrespre-schools and primary schools for children aged three to 12.

Its other initiatives are helping 70,000 children in Zambia, 70,000 in Zimbabwe, 35,000 in South Africa, 1800 in Botswana and 1000 in Namibia.