According to Leipzig official website, Christoph Baumgartner has performed well at the beginning of the new season and has scored two goals and had one assist. The Austria international returned from international duty on Wednesday with a special trophy in hand. This time, though, it wasn't his football achievements that caught people's attention. Baumgartner received the Fair Play Award for his social contributions.
Baumgartner said: "I have the opportunity to help others. When you step out of your own small circle, you will find that not everyone is as lucky as us professional players. As a professional player, I live a very privileged life and have the opportunity to help others. This is what I have always wanted to do."
In 2022, Baumgartner established a vocational training center in Kakule, Uganda, to support women in this East African country.
"Uganda has a touching history. One of the biggest problems today is that there is almost no contraception, which means that women often become pregnant and cannot rely on the father of the child for financial support. Therefore, they have to give up education to take care of the child." 26-year-old Baumgartner explained.
"A friend of mine brought the situation in Uganda to my attention. He had visited there, learned about the situation and talked to the locals. From the beginning, I wanted to support the project wholeheartedly - not just donate money without knowing what it was like on the ground."
{4 "The program grew so well in a short period of time that we realized the next step was to hire more teachers to educate the women's children. The entire program has continued to grow and develop."Today, 80 children aged 4 to 9 attend Baumgartner Junior School. In addition to his commitment to education, the No. 14 also launched a fundraising campaign to repair 12 wells. Thanks to this initiative, 35,000 people now have permanent access to clean drinking water.
"Our big goal in the next few years is to build our own school and rehabilitate more wells, and every donation helps. This is not about self-promotion or getting a good name, but we have now decided to make this project public to have a bigger impact locally."
More projects are already planned: "Our big goal in the next few years is to build our own school and Repairing more wells, every donation helps. It's also getting positive feedback from teammates, and of course the lads are interested in it. People who have a personal connection to Africa, for example, are talking to me about it, 'Baumgartner, what you're doing is incredible, but you're supporting people in Africa.'source:bóng đá 7m cn