STEFFI GRAF FIGHTS FOR CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH
Steffi Graf, 30, believed it was time to retire after winning 22 Grand Slam championships and ranking third in the world by August 1999. Together with her husband, Andre Agassi, who also works in charity and aids impoverished children in the United States [see 1994], they believe that real-world events are more significant than tennis.
The winner, who held the top spot for 377 weeks (until surpassed by Novak Djokovic in February 2022), teamed up with Peter Riedesser, a child psychologist from the University of Hamburg, to launch her own charity, Children for Tomorrow. It supports war-traumatized or persecuted refugee children.
In 2018, she stated in The Guardian, “I felt moved to help after meeting these youngsters and learning about their heartbreaking experiences.” “The news constantly depicts the destruction caused by war. However, the psychological damage brought on by conflict is invisible. Frequently, these kids are unable to express their suffering or seek for assistance.
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She may also cite research showing that the likelihood of developing post-traumatic stress disorder is tripled for those who experience a traumatic event before the age of eleven. These youngsters are cared for by psychiatrists, social workers, physicians, and therapeutic artists in Germany.
They can communicate with these professionals through nonverbal therapy and interpreters. Graf claims that using music and art to express their feelings is much simpler for them. It can be challenging for kids to open up and find words to express their feelings when they are in a foreign nation,
