COLORADO SPRINGS – On August 15th, FISU President Killian, SG/CEO Eric Saintrond and the Chair of the Legal Committee Bill Hybl met with the President of the FEHSU (Fédération Haitienne du Sport Universitaire) Michel Dossous and its SG, Erby Beralte in Colorado Spring (USA).
Following the earthquake that destroyed 80% of the capital Port au Prince and killed 225,000 people, the FISU EC decided to assist the FEHSU in the reconstruction of the University sports activities in Haiti. In May at the EC meeting in Shenzhen the FISU 1st Vice-President CL Gallien presented an action plan for Haiti.
Michel Dossous and Erby Beralte presented to the FISU officials the updated situation, 7 months after the catastrophe. It is clear that despite the financial involvement of the International community, the situation is still extremely difficult for the Universities as most of them have been completely destroyed and the students are following their activities in tents.
FISU will assist the FEHSU to prepare and send a delegation to the ODUCC (Organization Deportivo Universitario de Centroamerica y del Caraibe) Games that will be held in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) from October 1st to 10th,, 2010. Then the FEHSU will also attend the first University Pan-American Judo Championship that will be organized in Panama from October 26th to 28th, 2010.
The main objective of the participation to these events will be the preparation and motivation of the Haiti student-athletes for the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen. Since the creation of the FEHSU, Haiti took part in 5 Universiades with very small delegations. For Shenzhen the preparation of the athletes will be extremely difficult but thanks to the dynamism of the FEHSU leaders Haiti will be present in China.
(Source: Eric Saintrond, Secretary General/CEO)
