Co-Founder and President of the Haynes Foundation, Paul Haynes, has declared that his 10-day visit to Guyana was very productive.
Haynes, who departed Guyana yesterday, told Stabroek Sport Sunday in an exclusive interview that the visit, which the foundation plans on making annually, was indeed productive since the foundation accomplished what it had set out to do.
“I think we accomplished what we set out for this visit. We were able to meet all of our targets and goals,” said Haynes.
The reason for the visit, Haynes explained, was to rebuild the damaged area of the Ruimveldt Children’s Home at East La Penitence.
He said also that the foundation decided to capitalize on the visit by making other donations to various sport organizations.
“Some of the donations were based on specific requests by those organizations and for the others the supplies were donated to us and we donated it to the organizations that we saw fit, to maximize its use towards sports among the youth of Guyana,” Haynes added.
While highlighting that the foundation originally began its philanthropy with its primary focus on supporting basketball, Haynes noted that the foundation has since garnered and made donations to “all sports equally.”
“Right now we don’t have a preferential sport, we tend to support sports that are promoting the sport and decentralizing the sport, while working with the youth… They [Youth] are the ones we need to start working with so that in a couple of years we can actually have fundamental athletes and disciplined athletes.”
Some of the donations made by Haynes during his visit on behalf of the foundation went to the Chess Federation, the Robert Cadogan
Afterschool Basketball Programme, Youth Basketball Guyana, Guysuco Training Centre, and also donations to the Ruimveldt Children’s Home, among others.
In explaining some of the short and long-term goals of the foundation for Guyana particularly, Haynes stated: “Our long-term goal for Guyana is to have most, if not all of the sporting organizations, administrations up to par with what is considered best business practices as far as how they can run more efficient and have transparency in their programmes so we can solicit more sponsorship so that they can become self- sustained.”
“We need to get the administrative offices on par and this will trickle down to the athletes,” he added.
According to Haynes the foundation has been registered since April 2007, but began their philanthropy two years earlier.
Currently the foundation is based in New Jersey, United States, where they also support youths in the school system.
The foundation was established by Patrick and Paul Haynes with the aim of providing the necessary resources and services to enhance the personal growth and development of disadvantaged children.
