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Soccer Academy efforts make big impact in Haiti
Oct 14, 2009 11:44 AM
By Tannika King - Faculty
When Darlington Soccer Academy Director Chad Liddle and his wife, Darcy, traveled to Pignon, Haiti, earlier this month, he had planned on delivering the soccer equipment his players had collected over the past year and doing some mission work. What he did, in addition, was form relationships he will always treasure and learn from a poverty stricken community that you don’t need things to make you happy.
“These people do not have the resources they need, but they are happy and thankful for everything they do have,” Chad said. “There is no running water or electricity, except at the Haitian & American Friendship Foundation complex, and even then it’s only minimal (a couple of hours per day). They use outhouses and well water, and their houses have dirt floors. They eat mainly rice and beans with lentils and bay leaves added for extra protein. Their church was nothing more than a tarp strung between two trees, yet that’s all they needed.”
This trip was a result of the Liddles’ relationship with Greg and Barbara VanSchoyck, whom they had met through their church, Rush Chapel United Methodist. Though the VanSchoycks have a home in Rome, they live in Pignon 10 months out of the year and have done so for the past 18 years. For Darcy, this was actually the second time she had made the trip to volunteer with the VanSchoycks and the Haitian & American Friendship Foundation (HAFF), which provides education, Christian outreach, community development and medical care in central Haiti.
“Darcy has done a number of mission trips over the years,” Chad said. “She’s been to Costa Rica, Honduras, Montana, Kentucky, Mississippi, but she loves this one the most because of the relationships we’ve built. It seems like the American way is to go into a struggling area, build or rebuild something, and then leave. This trip was about helping the Haitian people, but also about getting to know them and building relationships at the same time.”
Chad and Darcy’s adventure began on Oct. 2. They boarded a plane in Miami and flew to Port-au-Prince, where they then took a small Cessna – care of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship – over the mountains of Haiti. They landed on a grassy strip surrounded by farm animals with no runway in sight. Soon after their arrival, their missionary friends took them to the local market, where they were able to truly absorb the new culture in which they had immersed themselves.
“Everything was for sale at the open air market, and it was extremely crowded,” Chad said. “There were fruits and vegetables, cups of rice and beans, and even whole fish that had been chargrilled in their entirety! It was definitely eye opening because it’s so poverty stricken, yet the digital world is there. I have a photo of a guy riding to market on his donkey barefoot with a saddle made of saw grass, dragging his sugar cane and talking on a cell phone. It was like the digital age meeting the medieval times.”
On their way back to the HAFF complex, the Liddles and their guides stopped by a United Nations outpost that hosted Chilean marines, the peacekeeping force in Pignon. Chad invited them to be a part of the soccer clinic he was hosting on Sunday after church, and they gladly agreed.
“This experience was not only good for the kids, but it was great for the marines as well,” Chad said. “They don’t have very many opportunities to interact with and get to know the people they are protecting. It was really neat to be a part of that.”
Nearly 60 children showed up for the first clinic. Liddle handed out jerseys and walked them down to the soccer field, which was nothing more than a big washout area with chickens running around and a horse tied to one of the PVC pipe goal posts.
“I had six or seven older Haitian men helping me, and I tried to mentor them so they could start running some things for the youth,” Chad said. “Over half of the kids didn’t have shoes. It was sad, but very cool because they were all smiling and having the best time. The only thing I gave them was jerseys, but they were so thankful.”
Liddle, his Haitian mentees and the Chilean marines held soccer clinics on Monday and Tuesday as well. Each time, up to 60 kids would show up to participate with several hundred spectators coming to watch as well. At the end of the last clinic, they held a game in which the marines played some of the older Haitian boys.
“It was so cool because even though we spoke three different languages – English, Spanish and Creole – we were all able to communicate through soccer,” Chad said. “Before we left, I challenged the guys I was mentoring to start a soccer league for the kids. I hope they do it.”
All in all, the Liddles distributed approximately 350 jerseys, 25 pairs of cleats, 30 vests, 20 bags and 16 balls on behalf of Darlington Soccer Academy. Some of these were used items given by Soccer Academy players, and others were internationally recalled items donated by the U.S. Soccer Foundation and Nike. And as Chad and Darcy prepared to leave Pignon on Oct. 8, a flood of townspeople came to the HAFF complex to bid them farewell.
“One 15-year-old boy gave us a painting he had done of a Caribbean market, another sketched a drawing of a group of young boys huddled together in the rain, and one lady hand stitched a table cloth and napkins for us,” Chad said. “That just shows how sweet and giving these people are. Darcy and I are already making plans to visit Pignon again next year. I would also love to take a group of Darlington kids to Haiti so they can have the same experiences we did and see that even in the most poverty stricken areas, people can find reasons to be happy.”
“These people do not have the resources they need, but they are happy and thankful for everything they do have,” Chad said. “There is no running water or electricity, except at the Haitian & American Friendship Foundation complex, and even then it’s only minimal (a couple of hours per day). They use outhouses and well water, and their houses have dirt floors. They eat mainly rice and beans with lentils and bay leaves added for extra protein. Their church was nothing more than a tarp strung between two trees, yet that’s all they needed.”
This trip was a result of the Liddles’ relationship with Greg and Barbara VanSchoyck, whom they had met through their church, Rush Chapel United Methodist. Though the VanSchoycks have a home in Rome, they live in Pignon 10 months out of the year and have done so for the past 18 years. For Darcy, this was actually the second time she had made the trip to volunteer with the VanSchoycks and the Haitian & American Friendship Foundation (HAFF), which provides education, Christian outreach, community development and medical care in central Haiti.
“Darcy has done a number of mission trips over the years,” Chad said. “She’s been to Costa Rica, Honduras, Montana, Kentucky, Mississippi, but she loves this one the most because of the relationships we’ve built. It seems like the American way is to go into a struggling area, build or rebuild something, and then leave. This trip was about helping the Haitian people, but also about getting to know them and building relationships at the same time.”
Chad and Darcy’s adventure began on Oct. 2. They boarded a plane in Miami and flew to Port-au-Prince, where they then took a small Cessna – care of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship – over the mountains of Haiti. They landed on a grassy strip surrounded by farm animals with no runway in sight. Soon after their arrival, their missionary friends took them to the local market, where they were able to truly absorb the new culture in which they had immersed themselves.
“Everything was for sale at the open air market, and it was extremely crowded,” Chad said. “There were fruits and vegetables, cups of rice and beans, and even whole fish that had been chargrilled in their entirety! It was definitely eye opening because it’s so poverty stricken, yet the digital world is there. I have a photo of a guy riding to market on his donkey barefoot with a saddle made of saw grass, dragging his sugar cane and talking on a cell phone. It was like the digital age meeting the medieval times.”
On their way back to the HAFF complex, the Liddles and their guides stopped by a United Nations outpost that hosted Chilean marines, the peacekeeping force in Pignon. Chad invited them to be a part of the soccer clinic he was hosting on Sunday after church, and they gladly agreed.
“This experience was not only good for the kids, but it was great for the marines as well,” Chad said. “They don’t have very many opportunities to interact with and get to know the people they are protecting. It was really neat to be a part of that.”
Nearly 60 children showed up for the first clinic. Liddle handed out jerseys and walked them down to the soccer field, which was nothing more than a big washout area with chickens running around and a horse tied to one of the PVC pipe goal posts.
“I had six or seven older Haitian men helping me, and I tried to mentor them so they could start running some things for the youth,” Chad said. “Over half of the kids didn’t have shoes. It was sad, but very cool because they were all smiling and having the best time. The only thing I gave them was jerseys, but they were so thankful.”
Liddle, his Haitian mentees and the Chilean marines held soccer clinics on Monday and Tuesday as well. Each time, up to 60 kids would show up to participate with several hundred spectators coming to watch as well. At the end of the last clinic, they held a game in which the marines played some of the older Haitian boys.
“It was so cool because even though we spoke three different languages – English, Spanish and Creole – we were all able to communicate through soccer,” Chad said. “Before we left, I challenged the guys I was mentoring to start a soccer league for the kids. I hope they do it.”
All in all, the Liddles distributed approximately 350 jerseys, 25 pairs of cleats, 30 vests, 20 bags and 16 balls on behalf of Darlington Soccer Academy. Some of these were used items given by Soccer Academy players, and others were internationally recalled items donated by the U.S. Soccer Foundation and Nike. And as Chad and Darcy prepared to leave Pignon on Oct. 8, a flood of townspeople came to the HAFF complex to bid them farewell.
“One 15-year-old boy gave us a painting he had done of a Caribbean market, another sketched a drawing of a group of young boys huddled together in the rain, and one lady hand stitched a table cloth and napkins for us,” Chad said. “That just shows how sweet and giving these people are. Darcy and I are already making plans to visit Pignon again next year. I would also love to take a group of Darlington kids to Haiti so they can have the same experiences we did and see that even in the most poverty stricken areas, people can find reasons to be happy.”
