Former Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger will go to the World Cup with Germany and is going to make a generous donation.
He will be donating all his earnings from the World Cup to 11 children in Sierra Leone for surgery and to improve their standard of living.
He is working with German aid organization BigShoe and will finance a series of extremely complex, expensive and life-changing operations for these children.
The children come from a town called Lunsar and suffer congenital club feet, an ailment that is highly stigmatized. The children afflicted with this would have to resort to crutches for all their lives while also be the victims of bullying and become socially isolated due to their condition.
"It hurts to see the circumstances in which children in Sierra Leone are growing up," said Rudiger.
He was happy to hear the surgeries were going well: "During surgery, the misalignment is corrected before the patients are finally able to walk and participate in social life, after several months of follow-up treatment."
"I have been given opportunities in Germany that many people in Sierra Leone are denied. I am grateful for these opportunities and I greatly appreciate the privileged situation I am in.
"Helping here is a matter of honor for me. I would like to implement many more projects in Sierra Leone with my family in the future."
