Before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa took over the soccer news landscape there was the story of the Haiti U-17 girls National Soccer Team.
ESPN had done an amazing story about the struggles and adversity these young women on the Haitian U-17 National Soccer Team faced. They explored their effort to qualify for the U-17 CONCACAF competition, how the players were coping with the loss of their head coach, and most importantly what would come of these young ladies once they returned home to Haiti. Many of the players were homeless and without a family due to the destruction caused to their country from a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010 just 15 miles outside of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.
In the end the girls from Haiti gave their very best but did not qualify and returned home. I wondered along with my wife "What had happened to them" over the last 5 months since their return? As you may well know the recovery in Haiti has been extremely slow, some may say non existent.
So as I browsed through ESPN.COM about a week ago I came across the answer to my question. Well a partial answer and I was amazed to learn how not only a 16 year old American soccer player but the same girl who had played against that very team from Haiti would eventually provide an opportunity of hope to her former opponents. Her name is Bryane Heaberlin and she is an amazing young lady who decided to use soccer as an opportunity for hope. Hope that was and most likely still is very needed to a group of teenage soccer players from Haiti. Bryane proves that both young people and soccer can be very powerful, positive forces.
See Bryane Heaberlins' amazing story:
Thank you for sharing! This story touches my heart and breaks it at the same time because I feel so much pain for the Haitian girls. Kudos to Bryane! Hopefully this is a lesson for the rest of us, if a 17 year old girl can do all this, surely the rest of us can continue to help these girls! Let's rally together and get something started!
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