Post-apocalypitic Cite Soleil
Enter, Boby Duval.
It was only a month ago that my random conversation with an acquaintance led to the email introduction of Boby Duval—former soccer star-turned-political-activist-turned-Haitian humanitarian— followed by an “if you’re ever in the neighborhood, stop by” invitation.
The next thing I knew, I was getting picked up by Boby at the Port au Prince airport, as well as getting the complete lowdown on his life story.
Turns out Robert “Boby” Duval is the irrepressible son of Creole elites. From childhood, he had two goals: excel in athletics and run the family business. By 22, he was living the Caribbean dream— balancing his time between serving as president of Duval Tire and starring on Haiti’s pro soccer team. But when he also began speaking out against the country’s notorious Duvalier political regime— accusing them of corruption and horrific human rights violations— his dream took a nightmarish turn.
Apparently autocratic despots lose their sense of humor when criticized by popular and outspoken constituents, so they locked Boby up in prison for 17 months as encouragement to keep his trap shut.
But true rebels cannot be silenced. After his release, Boby doubled down, forming a human rights organization and news agency, as well as continuing to speak out until the regime fell in 1986. After a decade of exhausting top-down politics, however, Boby wondered if even greater change might come by working from the bottom up. Since soccer was probably the one thing all Haitians could agree on, perhaps Boby could leverage his assets to empower the people of Haiti in a radical new way.
Enter, L’Athletique d’Haiti.
L’Athletique d’Haiti entrance
Combining his family connections, soccer skills, personal popularity, and enterprising vision, in 1995, Boby began by renting a 15-acre compound near the edge of Cité Soleil— one of Haiti’s most notorious urban slums. Where everyone else saw a field of rubble and broken glass, Boby saw a sports training center that would capture the dreams of Haiti’s most impoverished kids. Where everyone else saw a neighborhood of delinquents and dropouts, Boby saw potential proteges.
He envisioned an after-school mentoring program that would infuse these children’s worlds with structure, discipline, team building, and education.
Working with kids so poor that many came to soccer practice barefoot, Boby had to source every handout on the planet. Through family and professional connections, charities, sponsors and donors, he collected jerseys, juice, cleats, cooking oil, beans, rice, and every cent possible to hire the best coaches he could afford.
And just because they may have been poor, there would be no “free lunch” for kids here. In return for their enrollment in the program, there were two expectations:
1. Get good grades in school.
2. Contribute to the betterment of the world.
L’Athletique d’Haiti training field
Like a Polaroid picture slowly coming into view, Boby’s vision materialized. Over the first ten years, L’Athletique d’Haiti grew from one training center to five, serving over 1,500 children nationwide every day— children who were captivated by his vision as well.
Outsiders may have seen an expansive wasteland of hard, brown grass, but Boby’s kids saw a field of dreams where fans cheered, spirits soared, and where they were the superstars of their own destiny.
After practice, sweaty and exhausted kids joined their excited teammates for a hot meal— outsiders may have seen unappetizing plates of mush scooped out of donated charity bags stamped “Food for the Poor." These kids, however, saw the breakfast of champions.
Breakfast of champions
If how young people feel about themselves affects everything they think and do, even well-meaning handouts stamped with “Food for the Poor” or “Feed My Starving Children” labels can easily cripple children’s psyche as they absorb the intrinsic messages: We are “the starving children." With every bite of donated food eaten, or every article of cast-off clothing donned, a perilous message can seep into their souls, telling them that life at the bottom of the world is where they belong.
But by helping these kids see past labels— and hold onto the vision that they are contributing to the betterment of the world— Boby transforms charity into tools that help healthy identities grow.
To support Boby’s empowering methodology, I asked to engage his kids in a GSD project where they could contribute to the betterment of the world by teaching the value of vision to others.
We began by rounding up a dozen teen volunteers and breaking the tragic news to them that many of their “less fortunate” American peers were so unimaginative they had to buy their toys from (*gasp*) a store. For Haitian kids— who learn to make their own toys before they learn to walk— this concept was incredulous.
Like, seriously??
Boby explained that their mission was to create a step by step engineering tutorial on how to make the coolest toys possible for these ‘visually challenged’ children abroad.
After quickly rounding up old plastic bottles, caps, plastic bags, rice bags, and sticks, they piled the materials on the table and let the toy-making magic unfold. For the next 45 minutes, their nimble fingers transformed cast-off refuse into colorful and imaginative cars and kites.
And their tutorial was a master class in rethinking what is considered ‘useless.' On every level.
Toy-making tools
Leading the toy-making workshop
***
Since that trip, Boby’s program has faced a decade of ups, downs, and flat-out devastation. But despite 7.0 earthquakes, Category 5 hurricanes, and cholera outbreaks that continue to knock the wind out of Haitians, Boby continues to focus on the future.
In 2016, he launched the Athletic of Haiti League, an innovative soccer league that will allow his young superstars to expand their minds beyond the slums by competing in international competitions. He also unveiled his biggest, boldest, and most audacious dream yet— Phoenix Stadium— a 10,000-seat sports complex to be built on the rubble of post-earthquake Cite Soleil.
Phoenix Stadium would not only create lucrative cultural and economic opportunities for Haiti, but would set a grand stage for his young proteges right in their own backyard.(Trying to describe the fortitude, perseverance, and stamina of Boby Duval is so mind-boggling, the English language needs a new word for “ballsy.")
Conceptual drawing of Phoenix Stadium in Cite Soleil, Haiti. By Carlos Zapata Studio
Boby Duval with proteges
By showing kids that even earthquake rubble can become the foundation for epic monuments in the most impoverished places on the planet, Boby teaches kids how to view every single thing in their path as a tool to transform their future— as long as they keep their eyes on the prize.
"By showing kids that even earthquake rubble can become the foundation for epic monuments... Boby teaches kids how to view every single thing in their path as a tool to transform their future."
Check out Boby Duval's TED talk
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