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Birmingham, England. Top badminton players, gathered for last week’s annual All England Super Series, gave up their time for a news conference in Birmingham to lend the sport’s muscle to a new charity called Solibad.

The brainchild of French photojournalist Raphael Sachetat, its name in French is Badminton Sans Frontieres, echoing the renowned Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The aim is to pull together human and financial resources to raise funds through the badminton community and beyond to help small-scale projects.

Two projects are already under way at orphanages in Bali and Kuala Lumpur. Solibad is also engaged with another charity, Peace and Sport, on a project called “1,000 Rackets for Haiti.”

It aims to collect badminton equipment around the world to help Haitian youngsters living in survivor camps overcome their trauma and resume their lives.

Sachetat, 37, said on the eve of the Solibad launch: “It’s exciting for me and I know the players are excited.

“It’s unique, I think, because it’s the first time so many players in one sport and the overall community have come together to support one foundation or one cause. I may be wrong, but I’ve not seen that in any other sports. It’s usually one star that has his own foundation, but everybody coming together, from the top stars to the leisure players, all for one cause, I think it’s unique.”

Those lending support at the media launch included former Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, England’s doubles supremo Nathan Robertson, former All England women’s champion Zhou Mi of Hong Kong and top-ranked men’s doubles player Koo Kien Keat of Malaysia.

In addition, world No. 5 Pi Hongyan, a Chinese-born woman who represents France, has been involved from the start and plays a major role.

Others lending backing include Denmark’s Jan Jorgensen, Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam, Germany’s Marc Zwiebler and Dutchwoman Judith Meulendijks.

They and others will act as Solibad ambassadors, backing the projects and spreading the word. Other possible projects are being looked at in Vietnam, Brazil, Manila, Madagascar and China.

Sachetat said: “The other thing which I think that is also quite unique is that we want it to be a joyful thing, to have fun really, so it’s a win-win situation.”

Sachetat spent some time in the field in Africa when training to be a doctor, before, as he put it, being “kidnapped” by badminton.

For the last 10 years he has followed the international circuit, becoming almost as familiar a face as the players themselves.

Importantly, Sachetat stresses that every euro raised will go direct to the projects.

“There’s no waste at all,” he said. “Coming originally from a big NGO, I know these organizations have to be there because they do a fantastic job.

“But on the other hand, when we have a lot of people giving small amounts of money, I feel it’s a shame that some of that money that’s been hard fought for goes into paperwork.”



Reuters