The seed is now planted and badminton is ready to grow and make a small change for Haitians. Kaveh Mehrabi, an Iranian Olympian and Peace and Sport’s Champion for peace, together with James Tjan, a badminton coach from the Netherlands and long time badminton specialist Raphael Sachetat, also founder of SOLIBAD – Badminton Without Borders arrived in Port au Prince on October 31st with a Mission impossible: give the basics of badminton to 22 local Physical educators in less than 48 hours, so that they could teach children in the surviving camps. Waking up at 5am to create badminton courts with strings nails on a football field or to make the best out of the short time they had, the team led by Sylvain Heraud, Peace and Sport’s Coordinator for this project, was ready to take the challenge and had brought some equipment for the sports educators, whom, for some, had never touched a badminton racket before. Kaveh, also a coach in his home club of Denmark, together with James and Raphael were then on for an intense session of training in order to provide the 22 students – 19 men and 3 women – with the basic principles of the sport. The warming up, the footwork, holding a rackets, the strokes and – most importantly, the types of games to make it fun for their future students, in the camps or schools of Haiti. In spite of difficult conditions – the heavy sun, strong draft from the constant wind and the shadow of the hurricane Tomas ready to hit the Island on the back of everyone’s mind, the 2 days of training sessions was a clear success and all Haitians showed an amazing will to learn and made tremendous progress within the two days, often staying on the courts to play even after 8 long hours of learning. Kaveh said: “I was amazed by the enthusiasm of the local educators who were so keen on learning that it made it an incredible experience for me to be here. It was amazing to see the energy and positive attitude that the educators had and that gave me a lesson of life and a lot of motivation to work even harder with this interesting project. Sport can really be a source of inspiration, even in the most difficult situation. There is one sure thing: it will not be my last time in Haiti.'' Camp Corail The trip saw Mehrabi, Tjan and Sachetat also go to one of Haiti’s biggest surviving camps in the outskirts of Port au Prince, “Camp Corail”, where hundreds of tents had been set up few weeks after the deadly earthquake which had taken the lives of over 250 000 people. In quite an amazing setting, the team set up an improbable badminton court for the local kids who have no school, nor activities to look forward to everyday. In a few minutes, shuttles where flying away with the children laughing and taking a clear interest in a sport they probably had never even seen before. “When I heard of this project, I first thought that it didn’t make much sense to bring badminton equipment to people who have little means to survive and other things to worry about. In the few minutes I spent in that camp Corail, I realized how wrong I was. That these racket, net and shuttle could make a difference in these kids’ lives, as it seems that they forgot about everything else when they were trying to hit the shuttles over the net, laughing and smiling. It was, for me a big lesson of life” said Solibad Founder Raphael Sachetat. “It was an amazing experience to go to the Corail camp, in the middle of the displaced camp we set up a badminton court and started playing with these amazing kids who were curious, playful and happy to see us and play with us. Standing in this large valley of tents of people trying to survive in difficult conditions was an experience I will never forget. The joy provided by playing badminton was amazing and surreal. Giving something which seems small really can bring a difference.“ added James Tjan. 750 rackets already collected In the eight months nurturing the project – it was first announced on March 12th 2010 -, Peace and Sport and SOLIBAD collected equipment from different means and places. Kaveh Mehrabi toured the local clubs in Denmark to collect old equipment, clean lockers from “lost and found”, washed, folded and packed over 1000 pieces of sports clothing, making his small apartment in Copenhagen a virtual warehouse for a few weeks before all was shipped to Haiti. Worldwide badminton star Peter Gade of Denmark gave his European Gold Medal for auction to support the project, while Raphael Sachetat travelled to China to secure a deal with Guangzhou badminton Association for them to send 200 rackets to Haiti directly. Some badminton brands also donate rackets for the project: Artengo, Victor and RSL. In 8 months, 750 rackets were collected, hundreds of shuttles, nets and sports clothing ready to be used by the Haitian Olympic Committee as part of the project, where the 22 coached are now ready to take a leading role into spreading the sport in the Island. 1,000 rackets for Haiti The joint project, called “1,000 rackets for Haiti” aims to collect Badminton equipment around the world to help 8 to 20 year-old Haitian youngsters living in survivor camps to overcome their trauma and to resume living together in confidence. “1,000 rackets for Haiti” was born when Raphael Sachetat President and Founder of Solibad, heard through the Badminton World Federation’s development officers about Peace and Sport’s global solidarity appeal to the sports world. He contacted Peace and Sport and offered to organize the collection of badminton equipment and worked closely with Peace and Sport’s Champion for Peace, Kaveh Mehrabi, who spent all his free time – on top of a tough badminton competition schedule to collect equipment and raise awareness on the program. After the earthquake of January 12, the HOC launched a program called “Sports Activities for Young People” in collaboration with UNICEF. The aim of this program is to supervise 100,000 of the most disoriented young people (aged 8 to 20) through daily sports activities as well as providing psychosocial and educational support. Activities include football, volleyball, basketball, judo, gymnastics, chess, tennis and, of course badminton. Structured practice of these disciplines is designed to overcome the trauma and facilitate social reintegration of the youngsters involved. Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization, founded by 4 times Olympian and World Champion in Modern Pentathlon Joël Bouzou, under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II, has been officially commissioned by the HOC to coordinate international aid from the global sports movement for this program. The number one priority is collecting any kind of sports equipment, new or used, that can be used in the program. Solibad
Raphael Sachetat raphael@solibad.net
+33 66 06 82 504 Kaveh Mehrabi
kavehmehrabi@yahoo.com
+45 31 71 71 49 Peace and Sport
Sylvain Heraud
haiti@peace-sport.org
+377 97 97 7800 |