Meet The Champions - Yank Barry

Meet The Champions -

- A Series of Articles to Introduce You to the Amazing Individuals that share our goal to see an end to world hunger.  They have joined an elite list of Entertainers, Sports Figures, Politicians, Industry Leaders who Global Village Champions Foundation have bestowed the honour of being our "Champions". Individuals who give of their time, effort, money and expertise to raise funds to enable the Foundation to travel to some of the poorest nations in the world to deliver much needed food, supplies and medical attention. 

Article 1 - Yank Barry - Founder and CEO of Global Village Champions Foundation

Born on January 29, 1948 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Yank enjoyed 30 years in the music industry as a singer, composer, arranger and producer. He started his career in 1965 as the lead singer of the Footprints and singing “Never Say Die”.  In 1967, he became the lead singer of the touring Kingsmen and is best known for the classic song “Louie, Louie”. Yank pioneered the first quadraphonic record album along with Robert Lifton and Ben Lanzaroni in 1970. He then recorded the Rock Opera “The Diary of Mr. Gray” in 1971 which led to appearances on the Mike Douglas Show, the Merv Griffin Show and the Sally Jessy Raphael Show. In 1975, Yank composed, sang and produced “Welcome Home POW’s” for then President Richard M. Nixon. He produced the Broadway show “Let My People Come” at the Imperial Theater in 1979. Yank’s career in the music industry saw him work with artists as diverse as Alice Cooper, Charlie Rich, David Foster, Tom Jones, Gary U.S. Bonds, Ben E. King, Engelbert Humperdinck and many more. He has also enjoyed success in the field of advertising jingles. Some of his numerous jingles include Kellogs Raisin Bran, Dr. Pepper, Kodak, Red Lobster and General Motors.

During his music career, Yank started some of his early philanthropic endeavors, encouraging colleagues to put on concerts for various causes helping countless people with his efforts on behalf of drug prevention, social causes and hunger.

In 1990, Yank developed VitaPro, a soy based meat replacement product. It was Yank’s entry into the food industry as founder and Chairman of VitaPro that would change his life and the lives of countless other people forever. While expanding the distribution of his soy product around the world, Yank encountered people whose desperate living conditions touched his heart. One of Yank’s core beliefs is “No one should go hungry”.  He started donating his product to various charities in Canada and the US. Witnessing the tremendous need, Yank invited his dear friend Muhammad Ali to become the first Global Village Champion, and to join him in working towards a day without hunger. Yank’s philanthropic efforts, through Global Village Market, reached around the world to refugee camps, orphanages and areas struck by disaster.

Yank has traveled throughout Africa, the Orient and Asia bringing with him food, medical supplies clothing and educational tools.  He has helped countless people in their time of need, going to unstable areas when very few would lend a helping hand.  Through Global Village Market, Yank has provided over 450 million meals to hungry people worldwide including the Philippines.

Yank responded quickly when a catastrophic earthquake shook Port-au-Prince Haiti to the ground. Watching the news and seeing the devastation, he did not wait for the main airport to be made operational. He flew to Haiti from his home in Nassau Bahamas with a chartered private plane numerous times. He personally accompanied the shipments of food, water and medical supplies to ensure that they reached the people in need. Yank brought a team together with immediate action, going into the rubble when barely any other organization could. He brought medical supplies to make- shift hospitals. He found orphanages barely surviving on scraps amid the dust and rubble. The staff often giving up what little food they had to feed the children until Yank and his team showed up to supply food, water, clothing, candy and toys. Global Village Champions worked hand in hand with the Haiti Disaster Relief team, the Haitian Red Cross, the Haitian Rotary Club and the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital.  Through these tireless efforts, he has helped numerous Haitians rebuild their lives in their native country. Yank’s ultimate goal, with the support of his army of Global Village Champions, is to knock out World Hunger.

Yank has received nearly two dozen awards recognizing his philanthropic and humanitarian efforts. He has received among others, 1998 Cote D’Ivoire Humanitarian Peace Award, 1999 Liberian Humanitarian, 2000 Juarez Hands of Love and Hope, 2005 Red Cross Humanitarian and the 2008 India – Humanitarian Service Award. In their October 2000 issue, Millionaire Magazine referred to Yank Barry as “The Man Who Could End World Hunger.” 

Yank's Most Recent Award is to be named the 2010 Laureate: The International Gusi Peace Prize, the first Canadian to ever receive this recognition.

MR. YANK BARRY

CANADA

Social Services, Philanthropy & International Humanitarianism

Feeding millions of children worldwide.

To Find out more information about Yank and Global Village Champions Foundation please visit our website:A Day Without Hunger

 Thank you for visiting our blog, please bookmark and feel free to leave a comment.

Jackie Bigford
Social Media Director
Global Village Champions Foundation

Hope for Haiti Update

Sunday Feb 21 2010 Yank Barry and a number of the Global Village Champions delivered more meals and medical supplies personally to orphans in Haiti. This is what our medical officer had to say based on his personal observations.

"I had the opportunity to visit, feed, and examine two dozen orphans at "La Divine Mercy Orphanage" in Haiti on Sunday Feb. 21 2010. I was brought to the orphanage by Mr. Yank Barry, Global Village Champions, and the Haiti Rotary Club.

I am a board certified family physician in the US, and I was accompanied by my wife, Karen, who is a childhood developmental disability specialist.

The children were clean and interactive. But unfortunately they were all malnourished. The orphanage is only able to provide basic food staples intermittently. As a result, the orphans are not only small for their age, but also showed other signs of both marasmus and kwashiorkor malnutrition. My wife also observed developmental delays in all age groups which is also linked to malnutrition.

The children in Haiti, both in the orphanage as well as along the roadside, need more complete nutrition beyond the corn meal, rice, and bean rations. I would recommend nutritional supplementation for the children to include daily macro-nutrients, micro-nutrients, vitamins, and minerals."

Daniel Stanhiser, MD

Meet some of these beautiful children: Judlin~6 years old, Casey~5 years old, Santana ~ 5 years old, David ~ 5 years Old, Alex ~ 10 years old, and many, many more.  As you will hear in the video, these children were found living in the garbage dumps, starving, frightened, alone and struggling to survive every minute of every day.  They are some of the luckier ones because the orphanage has provided them with basics.  Much more needs to be accomplished not only for these children but for the children that line the roadways all over Haiti.



This was our 6th trip to Haiti since the devastating earthquake hit in January...just one of the many more that our team will be making....we have a huge task ahead but we are committed to the children and people of Haiti.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog..please bookmark our site, please leave a comment and please tweet and share on Facebook and Youtube...your help is greatly appreciated.

To find out more information on our Foundation, please visit our website: A Day Without Hunger

Jackie Bigford
Global Village Champions Foundation
Social Media Co-ordinator

$10.00 X "The Power of You"

What can one person and a donation of just $10.00 possibly do to help the people of Haiti.

With the spotlight now moving away from Haiti, especially in light of the earthquake that hit Chili yesterday it is so important to not let the plight of the people and especially the orphaned children fade away.

Here is a picture of Hope for the Orphans of  Haiti - Yank Barry and an orphanage just outside of Port-au-Prince.  These children are the lucky ones..they are safe inside of the walls of the orphanage and have hope.  Our foundation has committed to support these beautiful children.

Here is an excerpt from an email sent to our Foundations Executive Director. This was a group of private citizens that made the trip to Haiti to see first hand what was happening.  I must warn you that parts are very difficult to read:

"When we arrived, it was not like that at all. The destruction was beyond belief trust me. Buildings were in pieces and the entire infrastructure of the Country is gone. It seemed very unorganized and no one knew who reported to whom. Even our military who was based at the airport had no clue what they were doing there. On the news there are pleas for Doctors and Nurses. We brought down 12 Doctors and Nurses on the first plane and an additional 15 on the 2nd. When they got there and went to University Hospital they were turned away, told that they were not needed and were not "Federalized". Even though there are thousands of people dying each day and thousands waiting in line for medical help at these hospitals, they did not want our medical supplies or help from our Doctors. It was unreal.....
We convoyed to Leogane, where the epicenter was about a 2 1/2 hour drive. It was beyond devastating there. We were the FIRST people to go there and this was 15 days after the earthquake! Not one relief mission, military force, UN group, NGO, etc was there before us and this is where the most devastation was. Everybody was scared to go there and even though we have tons of military troops on the ground and the airport is overflowing with supplies, none of it is getting to these people.....


We treated over 600 patients at that location in 6 hours with 2 Doctors, 3 Nurses and 6 volunteers. It was heart breaking. We saw horrible infections and some massive injuries. We ended up evacuating some people and bringing them back with us to the airport to the University of Miami Medical Center tent. Our evacuations included a 6 year old girl with a crushed finger that needed to get amputated, a 6 year old girl with Tetanus ( she ended up dying later that night), a 3 month old girl with a skull fracture, a 12 year old boy with a bad leg infection, etc.. It was like the Apocalypse. We couldn't believe how many people had such serious injuries and were unattended to for over 2 weeks.....


In 3 days we treated over 1,000 people, saved at least 100 lives, administered tons of antibiotics, distributed thousands of pounds of food and water, etc.. We became the "Robin Hood" gang of the airport base. After we saw that the supplies were not being distributed and were sitting there for days, including 1000's of cases of water from the UN and tons of meals from the Indian Army, we took it all and brought it to the people. Never once did they riot or get out of hand. I think the way food is being distributed by the Army and UN is sad. They throw the food at them from the back of a truck. That is why they act like animals. Treat them like animals and people will act that way" 


When I read this email, I cried and couldn't believe what I was reading..where are all the charities and organizations that received millions of dollars in donations...where is the money going...you need to decide

Video footage of a Tent Village from our trip February 23rd. 2010 

So, I come back to the original question: Your $10.00 multiplied will have a huge impact.  We are a private foundation, we have no red tape to contend with, we have an existing network that we work with in Haiti.  We have partnerships with the churches and leaders in Haiti.  The work ahead is monumental, but we are experienced, we are committed.  We need the funds to help us reach our goals.


A Day Without Hunger - Help Haiti 


Thank you for your commitment to our cause.

Written by:
Jackie Bigford
Global Village Leader
Social Media Co-ordinator