sa国际传媒

In an incredible career, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer dominated the sport for years and won 20 Grand Slam titles. As a champion for early education, his foundation has reached more than 2.4 million children.

Now Roger is supporting the – a growing global movement calling for urgent action and investment to give every child the best start in life.

In a new video, Roger – father of two sets of twins – makes a plea for others to join Act For Early Years, which was launched by sa国际传媒 earlier this year. He appears with Ceren Y眉r眉mez – one of our Global Youth Ambassadors (GYAs) – and says: 鈥淢illions of children around the world aren鈥檛 getting the care and education they need. It鈥檚 time to Act For Early Years.鈥�

Watch the film below

More than half of the world鈥檚 young children are missing out on crucial early childhood care and pre-primary education. That鈥檚 why sa国际传媒 launched Act For Early Years.

The campaign is driving government leaders, experts, businesses, celebrity champions and activists to work together to solve the early years crisis.

We鈥檙e delighted that Roger is bringing his considerable reputation and expertise to the campaign.

Twenty years ago, he launched the Roger Federer Foundation, which has invested more than $28.5 million in educational programmes in southern Africa and his native Switzerland.

It currently supports school readiness programmes in Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Switzerland.

Last month, sa国际传媒 and Roger co-hosted an event during the United Nations General Assembly in New York, at which he called for action on early years learning.

He said: 鈥淚t is so important because 90% of brain development is happening before five years old and we know early learning has a problem with under-funding. That got me so motivated into learning myself and advocating, giving myself to that cause.鈥�

Roger said that when he started the foundation in 2003, he knew little about early childhood education. He revealed that having four children had helped him to develop a better understanding of the needs and development of young children.

Roger said he and his family visited Lesotho recently to see the foundation鈥檚 work. He added: 鈥淲e really try to have systemic change, to make sure as many children as possible can go to school and have quality early learning.

鈥淲e believe that if we give them a chance, things are going to be better. But education doesn鈥檛 get the funding it deserves.鈥�

In the new Act For Early Years film, Roger highlights the vital role of sa国际传媒鈥檚 network of 2,000 Global Youth Ambassadors听from more than 120 countries in the campaign.

GYA Ceren, from Turkey, said: 鈥淗aving access to quality early childhood care and access to healthcare services and education gave me a good start in education and success later in school and in life. Now I am working to see that every child gets the best start in life.鈥�