In August 2013, World Youth Served was contacted by Shaping Haiti's Youth, is a not-for-profit organization based out of Atlanta, GA and whose mission is to develop and maintain in Haiti infrastructures and programs that will benefit the youth of the country. The objective for Shaping Haiti's Youth was to purchase 50 soccer balls and have them hand-delivered to poor children in Haiti by prominent Haitian attorney and former Haitian presidential candidate Maître Jean Henry Céant. The balls were purchased in Atlanta, GA from chain store FIVE BELOW, sent to Port-au-Prince, HAITI via DHL and distributed in Carrefour - the epicenter of the devastating January 2010 earthquake that claimed about 150,000 lives according to conservative estimates - and churches and schools around the capital. The carefully coordinated distribution began on August 17, 2013 and lasted through October 1, 2013.
This project provided a valuable international supporter in Mr. Jean Henry Céant, as well as add to WYS's overall mission and philosophy to provide community support programs both domestically and internationally. In addition, there will be additional opportunities to partner with both Mr. Céant and other organizations doing work in Haiti. Indeed, through the press generated by this project, World Youth Served will be part of a group of about a dozen organizations to conceptualize and implement large-scale educational programs in Haiti. In addition, the contributions of World Youth Served in this projects were noticed by the Liverpool Atlanta Fan Club (or LFCATL, a supporting organization of the English Premier League's Liverpool Soccer Club) and together WYS and ATL are currently putting together in 2014 a legacy biennial project to donate 250 balls in 4 different countries every two years. Finally, this project gave the organization enough visibility to have the president of the LFCATL club, Mr. Jamie Harrison, to join the World Youth Served Executive Committee as the Chairman of the Sports Development Committee in January 2014.
To make this project a reality, World Youth Served devoted 10% of its 2013 operational time to participate in this project. Also, the WYS Board of Directors contributed a total of $384.54 as a monetary gift to the project, which represented 39% of the total cost of the project ($979.50). The other contributors to the project were Sohaico, Inc. (Sunrise, FL) and Shaping Haiti's Youth, Inc. (Atlanta, GA).
