Giving Boys and Girls the Opportunity to Develop Skills through Playing Soccer
All girls soccer tournament in the fall of 2023. (this team wearing uniforms from Quincy’s HS (Pinnacle Phoenix, AZ).
We have a very special connection with soccer at Love Haiti. Our organization was originally founded to honor the life of Quincy Foster and the love that she had for Haiti. Quincy loved soccer, and played competitively throughout her life on Club, Varsity, and Collegiate levels. When she visited the mountainous Southeast Haiti in 2012, she stirred up quite a bit of commotion because it’s uncommon to see a girl skilled at soccer in Haiti. The kids Quincy played with on that trip gave her the title of “MVP'“ at the end of the week, a special achievement that she loved to brag about!
Our first project in Haiti was helping the community of Cascade Pichon build their own soccer field for kids in the community to use. After it’s completion, community leaders in Cascade Pichon came together and voted to name the field the “Quincy Foster Soccer Field.” Since then we’ve hosted dozens of tournaments throughout the SouthEast and are particularly proud of hosting the first all girls soccer tournament there in the fall of 2023!
an aerial view of the Quincy Foster Soccer Field mid-match
If not for our tournaments, these teams wouldn’t have been able to play one another as the cost of transportation, refs, food, and soccer supplies are so high due to natural disasters, poverty, inflation, and a lack of roads in Southeast Haiti.
In 2021, we began partnering with 16 schools in the Pichon and Belle-Anse regions of Southeast Haiti to encourage youth soccer participation from an early age. The Principals of these 16 schools love this partnership; student athletes on the teams are required to be enrolled in school if they wish to participate, so we end up mutually reinforcing both our emphasis on Education and Recreation for Haitian children!
