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A thousand badminton rackets will be sent to Haiti to help rehabilitate young people and assist them in overcoming long-lasting trauma after the January earthquake.

The initiative will be supported by some of the world’s most famous players, including Taufik Hidayat, the 2004 Olympic champion from Indonesia, Pi Hongyan, the world No. 4 from France, Zhou Mi, the former world No. 1 from China, Koo Kien Keat, the world No. 1 men’s doubles player from Malaysia, and Nathan Robertson, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist from Britain.

The idea is the brainchild of Raphael Sachetat, a badminton writer from France, and was announced on Friday at the 100th All-England championships at Britain’s National Indoor Arena.

Sachetat, founder of a charity organization called Solibad, said: “Most of us know of the therapeutic and social qualities of playing badminton, and helping young survivors in Haiti to play the game can become a very healing way to help reintegrate them into society.”

Solibad is running the appeal in collaboration with Peace and Sport, founded by Joel Bouzhou, a four-time Olympic modern pentathlon champion.

With the help of the Haitian Olympic Committee, the two organizations will work to get the rackets into the hands of Haitians between the ages of 8 and 20.

After the earthquake, the Haiti Olympic Committee launched a program called Sports Activities for Young People in conjunction with Unicef.

The program supervises 100,000 young people through daily sports activities and provides psychosocial and educational support. Among the activities are football, volleyball, judo, chess, tennis and badminton.

The badminton appeal, called A Thousand Rackets for Haiti, was developed after Sachetat heard through the Badminton World Federation of the work being done by Peace and Sport and offered to organize the collecting of rackets. AFP