A mission team from Caldwell Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, NC (www.caldwellpresby.org), has delivered 80 sets of jerseys & shorts donated from Flagler College (St. Augustine, FL) shoes (from donors nationwide), 20 balls plus other equipment from Peace Passers, to the indigenous community of San Rafael el Arado in Guatemala. The mission team was working through Common Hope (www.commonhope.org), a Minnesota-based nonprofit that provides assistance to Guatemalan families in the areas of education, healthcare, and housing. The church sponsors a child from San Rafael, helping to provide schooling, healthcare, and other services to her and her family, as well as support to the community as a whole.

Sally T, A member of the mission team says “Students from San Rafael were very excited to receive the soccer gear, since soccer is a popular pastime in Guatemala. The young women were especially happy to be included in the soccer plans and also recipients of the gear. Guatemalan children begin practicing their soccer moves with limes and other found objects by the time they are two or three years old. Yet rarely do village children have an opportunity to play with appropriate footwear and other gear. Mostly they play pickup games on dirt roads or empty fields after their chores are finished. Now the San Rafael school is planning scrimmages with neighboring communities. With these donations from PeacePassers, San Rafael students will enjoy their favorite sport even more!”

Here’s a link to photos from Ahuachapan, El Salvador taken on a recent trip by Myers Park Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, North Carolina. See the photos here

We are excited to let you know we’ve donated 200 + jerseys & shorts, 40 pairs of boots, shin-guards, & soccer balls to be shipped to Haiti from St. Matthews Catholic Church (Charlotte, NC). We’d like to thank volunteer Sue Cunningham (Charlotte, NC) for connecting us to this project. For about 10 years, her church has been sending crates of food every July to the Missionaries of the Poor in Cap Haitien. When the earthquake in January 2010, they needed to provide much more than food.

The Missionaries of the Poor were started by Father Richard Holung and along with his religious order they provide help to the poor, homeless, mentally and physically challenged, lepers, & AIDS victims all over the world. The priests and brothers of his order provide endless but always cheerful care to these people in their centers.

Sue Cunningham described to PeacePassers “In Haiti, the brothers plan to move 300 people from Port Au Prince to Cap Haitien and provide a place for them to live in a warehouse. My church has been collecting money, supplies, clothes, towels, diapers, bedding etc to send in three 40 ft. containers to Haiti. We were concentrating on the necessities but the opportunity to play soccer should keep kids occupied and put smiles on their faces! I wish I could see their faces when the containers get there.”

Thanks to IMG Soccer Academy intern Steven Carrera (Bradenton, FL) for donating the jerseys & shorts and to Karen Sroczynski (Waxhaw, NC) for her son’s February donation drive in collecting used soccer boots & soccer balls for PeacePassers!

We would like to thank the Men’s Soccer team from Central Christian College (McPherson, KS) for their jersey donation to PeacePassers. In an excellent example of collaboration we were able to provide the jerseys to Playforhope.org who mentors youth players in Rwanda. The joy in this picture and the excitement of new jerseys is priceless!

Building on collaborations with Habitat for Humanity-El Salvador (HFH-ES), Myers Park Presbyterian Church (Charlotte, NC) and the Peace Passers we have collaborated to send 34 soccer balls, 103 pairs of youth size soccer boots, 71 soccer jerseys, 26 Nike t-shirts, as well as field cones & sport duffle bags to Getsemaní, El Salvador. The mission team will be leaving from Charlotte, NC on Feb 12th and will be working in partnership with the community of Getsemaní, EL Salvador. We are happy to have the opportunity to support sports development in Getsemaní and surrounding areas. Many thanks to Anna Carter for connecting to Peace Passers and spreading the good word about our global outreach work; and of course thanks to Donnie Daugherty (pictured below) for taking lead on picking up the equipment from us in Charlotte to prepare it for packing.

We’d also like to mention the bulk of youth soccer shoes heading to El Salvador came from a donation received by high school student Madison Bush (Richmond, VA) who collected 115 pairs of soccer boots from her local community. We are proud of her hard work and know the shoes will bring many smiles & kicks to the youth in El Salvador.