Jeb Brovsky got married to the girl of his dreams, Caitlin, on December 8th, 2012. On the 26th, the honeymoon was a thing of the past, and the couple was off to Guatemala for eight days.
Through HANDS, a non-profit organization set up by Guatemalan alumni of the University of Notre Dame, Brovsky’s alma mater, they got in contact with orphanages in capital Guatemala City and in provincial towns Jalapa and Comapa. There, they held two-day camps during which they handed soccer balls and t-shirts to some 600 orphans. After hearing the children’s sometimes poignant stories, Caitlin would take the girls aside, Jeb would do the same with the boys, and they would inform them on domestic violence and the treatment of women.
For the latest efforts that Jeb Brovsky, who also founded an NPO called Peace Pandemic while at Notre Dame, has devoted to stopping violence against women and empowering girls and boys worldwide through soccer, he has been named, for the second time in his young career, MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Month for March.
Unforgettable experience for Brovsky
“The feedback was excellent not only from the people who run the orphanages, but from the organizations we got to help with,” Brovsky says in a phone interview with MLSsoccer.com. “They thought it was kind of a revolutionary idea that a man would speak to boys in Guatemala about violence against women, because they do battle with a lot of domestic violence down there.”
It wasn’t the first such trip for Brovsky. The previous offseason, it was in India that he brought his message of peace and empowerment, again through the medium of soccer.
But this time, the timing was peculiar, to say the least. Having just said goodbye to the bubble of happiness that was their honeymoon, the Brovskys ended up on an emotional rollercoaster in Central America, tackling domestic violence.
“If anything, it made our first weeks of marriage even stronger,” Brovsky responds philosophically. “You’re in a tough situation with stories you don’t hear every day. It adds perspective.”
READ: Jeb Brovsky's bio
The conversation inevitably turns to adoption and to whether the newlyweds would contemplate the idea. Unsurprisingly, the Brovskys are entirely in favor, and why shouldn’t they? The eventual patriarch, it turns out, is an adopted kid himself.
“I wasn’t an orphan like these children, I was very lucky to be adopted right at birth,” Brovsky explains. “Knowing how the adoption process goes and talking to my parents, times have changed, but it’s a pretty crazy process on both sides.
“Ever since I was old enough to understand, my parents told me that I was adopted. My sister was adopted as well, but she’s from a different [biological] mother, and so we look a little different. She’s an Italian girl and every time we go out for lunch, everyone thinks we’re on a date. They’re always shocked to see me push the bill over to my older sister!”
Biological or adopted, the children of Caitlin and Jeb will become globetrotters, as their parents will keep organizing a camp somewhere overseas every single offseason. Moreover, Peace Pandemic now looks to establish a volunteer program for high school or college students looking for community service opportunities abroad during the MLS season, potentially in Guatemala.
“The project’s in its adolescence,” Brovsky admits, “but I have been in contact with some coaches in the Montreal and Ottawa areas who are very interested in sending a few of their academy kids abroad.
“We’d like to keep it sustainable, to keep helping these organizations and these orphanages that we've been blessed to be in contact with.”
