Badminton without Borders: Solibad
Ahead of their matches at the Indonesia Open 2023, proud Solibad ambassadors Adam Hall and Kirsty Gilmour visited one of the villages in Indonesia that the badminton charity Solibad give resources to – Bekasi, just a 30-minute drive from the famous Istora Arena.
“Visiting the village was a truly eye opening experience and it was incredible to see how badminton can have such a positive impact in communities like this” – Kirsty Gilmour.
Adam shared the experience on his Instagram account: “What an unbelievable and eye-opening experience. It was a trip of two halves. On the one hand, getting the chance to play with the young kids and handing over all of the donations in person was a truly amazing experience! Like these kids are so talented and watching how much they enjoyed playing badminton was really inspiring”.
“Then going to visit the conditions where some of the same children live was really tough. It’s just such a shock when you see the scale of the trash that they’ve made a village out of, pictures really don’t do it justice”.
“It’s really made me think hard about the privileges that we grow up with in Scotland and has energised me even more to do as much as I can to help the kids who grow up in Bekasi to get even a small percentage of the chances that I got as a kid”.
“I can’t thank Raphael, and the Solibad charity as a whole, enough for all the hard work and passion they put into these projects, it is really inspiring getting to see it firsthand. And a big thanks again to everyone back home for all of your donations, they’re certainly going to be put to good use out here in Indonesia” ❤️
We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who made donations to the box in the Cockburn, as those were the very rackets and shoes that Kirsty and Adam handed out yesterday.
About Solibad
Solibad is above all the contraction of “Badminton and Solidarity” and is therefore a charitable association around the values of sport and solidarity.
Solibad obtained the approval of an Association of General Interest in March 2014. The objective of the association is to pool human and financial resources within the badminton community in France and internationally, in order to carry out and support humanitarian projects.
On December 10, 2019, Solibad celebrated 10 years, and during this time more than €275,000 has been collected, in France and abroad. 22 programs in 16 countries have benefited from the support of Solibad, with nearly 4,000 children directly impacted by actions in their field.
Give what you can
Solibad’s philosophy is simple and their actions are intended to be original: to have fun raising funds and providing financial or material assistance to populations in difficulty.
Their message of giving is that it should be a pleasure and a way to share and unite the entire badminton community – ‘It’s not about relieving yourself of guilt, but giving while having pleasure. An epicurean vision of sharing and solidarity.’