Local Woman Helps Run Girls Soccer Club in Haiti
What began as a 10-day trip to Haiti in 2011 for Taryn Silver turned into a new home and about 50 new friends. Silver, a former Sharon resident, helps run the Association Sportives des Jeunes Filles de Fond des Blancs (The Sports Association of Young Women of Fond des Blancs), a girls soccer club in the rural town of Fond-des-Blancs, about 70 miles west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. Silver moved to Haiti in 2012 to work for the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation in Fond-des-Blancs. It was there where she met Andover native Molly Klarman who had started the club last year. “On the streets and fields in Haiti you almost always see only boys playing soccer. This club offers the girls of Fond-des-Blancs a chance to play soccer, exercise, and have fun,” Silver said in an email to Sharon Patch. “We have 53 girls on our roster. The ages range from 13-22 with a few girls who are older (24, 26, 28). All of our girls are in school and live within a 35-minute walk to the practice field,” she said. The club offers an opportunity that Haitian women rarely get due to lack of funding, time and also due to the cultural roles Haitian men and women often play, Silver said. “Most girls that go to school have tons of chores they are responsible for doing after school. Including getting water, cooking food for the family, doing laundry and taking care of younger siblings,” she said. “I think it has mainly been for boys because of the gender roles in Haitian culture. We hope this club will help to shift those in the community and offer the girls a chance to be in the spotlight,” said Silver. When it first began the club had 20 girls. This year the roster has more than doubled in size. “Molly and I visited the schools in the community [in January] to invite new girls who might be interested. We thought we might have 25 girls interested, but now we have over 50 and girls keep showing interest,” said Silver. Silver said the club has been a success because it is fun for the women and it gives them confidence. Some of the girls shared why they like soccer and what the club means to them. The following are statements from some of the girls in the club that have been translated from Creole into English: Marie Danise Azor – 16 years old “I want to play soccer, because I love it so much. It is something important and that’s reason I want to play […]