MANUFACTORY OF HUMANITY
It all began with an idea from Jürgen Klinsmann. The former German national team player founded the AGAPEDIA Foundation for Children, Social Affairs and Education gGmbH in 1995. This year it is celebrating its 30th birthday. Over the three decades, it has developed into a successful project that will receive the special prize in the Football Foundation category at this year's Sepp Herberger Awards.
In Germany, the foundation has two children's centers that focus on disadvantaged children between the ages of six and twelve. Extracurricular activities are organized in the afternoons. With sports, creative workshops, a children's circus and cooking together, AGAPEDIA encourages children to recognize their potential and develop social skills. The foundation's motto is the focus of its daily work: every child has a right to equal opportunities.
Active in Germany and Eastern Europe
AGAPEDIA is not only active in Germany. In Eastern Europe - specifically in Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia and Moldova - the organization looks after children and orphans and provides family care. Through support in school and education, the children receive help in building an independent life. The foundation also cares for the elderly, sick and people in need of care in Moldova.
"We have been working in the Republic of Moldova since 2001 and have seen the suffering that some of the elderly people there have to endure. That has stayed with us," says Marika Barth, who has been with the organization since it was founded. "In Moldova, we have the special situation that many young people leave the country to work and earn money elsewhere." This leads to the elderly in the villages becoming lonely and children growing up with their grandparents or relatives. Against this backdrop, the foundation has provided long-term unemployed women with social training so that they can look after the elderly there. However, AGAPEDIA's main focus is on children, specifically six to twelve-year-olds.
Jürgen Klinsmann: "Giving children a home"
Jürgen Klinsmann remains closely involved as a representative and founding member of the foundation. He informs all donors at the end of the year about AGAPEDIA's activities and what the money has been used for. The 60-year-old, who played 108 international matches for the DFB team, is still very passionate about the organization's work: "AGAPEDIA gives children a home, a place where they can be, a home that belongs to them."
"I've known Jürgen Klinsmann for almost 50 years. He knew that I was involved in Albania with my wife and asked us in 1995 if we wanted to set up something together with him," says Stefan Barth, another founding member. "We were immediately enthusiastic about the idea. Above all, it's great that every cent goes to children and old people in need who really need the money."
TV presenter Günther Jauch put it this way at a fundraising gala a few years ago: "The AGAPEDIA Foundation is a manufactory of humanity and an example of how visions can become reality." Figures prove AGAPEDIA's commitment: more than 260,000 children have visited the children's center in Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg, which the foundation opened in 1996, over the past almost 30 years. 16,000 needy women in Romania and Moldova have received medical treatment. In Eastern Europe, more than 7,000 children at risk have been cared for since then. In recognition of these outstanding achievements by the AGAPEDIA Foundation in supporting socially disadvantaged children and young people, the organization receives the special prize of 12,500 euros in the "Football Foundation" category.
About the Sepp Herberger Awards
On March 31, the Sepp Herberger Awards will be presented at the VW Autostadt in Wolfsburg (at 8:15 p.m. live on #dabeiTV on MagentaTV and on the DFB YouTube channel). Eleven winners will receive awards in the categories of handicap soccer, resocialization, school and club, soccer foundation and social work as part of a varied stage programme. Cash prizes worth a total of 100,000 euros will be awarded at the ceremony, which will be attended by prominent personalities such as DFB President Bernd Neuendorf, Julian Nagelsmann, Alexandra Popp and Philipp Lahm.