Dr Yves Jean-Bart on the earthquake that devastated Haitian football

(CNN) -- Dr Yves Jean-Bart, President of the Haiti Football Federation, tells CNN about the day that the earthquake struck, the devastating aftermath and his hope for the future of soccer in the country.

What happened on the day of the earthquake?

I went to the federation around 1pm to meet the President of the Women's league and the members of the commission of the league - we had to discuss a lot of matters. Also present at the meeting were Hancy Lescouflair (wife of the Minister of Sports and the Women's League President) and the national head coach Jean Yves Labaze. The meeting was over and I was getting ready to leave when I felt the house shaking. I ran towards the back exit of the house. While going downstairs it was shaking really badly, I lost my balance and fell and blocks of debris fell on my hand.

I got up and fell again with a huge amount of debris falling on my body. I was scared but I got up again to move away from the house that I then saw collapse in a white cloud. With the few that were able to escape this tragedy, and also the friends of the football family, we started helping people trapped under the rubble. During the whole night, even in darkness and with their lives in danger, those young friends of football saved and removed a few injured colleagues under the rubble.

Unfortunately, more than 30 perished and even more saddening, we were not able to recover their body for days. Every day we go to the ruins of our office, and we had a memorial ceremony for all our colleagues that perished. We were helpless, beside three cases, to remove their bodies and return them to their families.

What was going through your mind after the earthquake?

I had many thoughts going through my head for many days after and not having communication, we were unable to obtain information. When some friends were able to recover my Blackberry, I started working and trying to reorganize. I started by contacting the parents of the young boys and girls, miraculously saved because they were practicing at the National Stadium, and helped those that were in need. I was also deeply in pain with my injuries and the loss of some of my family. Psychologically, I had a lot of questions. I was terribly choked.

What was left of the Haiti Football Federation?

From the headquarters there was nothing left. All our office equipment, all of what we were able to acquire throughout the years in order to put together a decent office - our efforts to have a nice archive, our trophies and distinctions during the last years - we lost everything. But most of all we lost a lot of colleagues including our best coach for the past years, all the equipment of our national teams, thousands of balls recently purchased everything...everything.

How did you cope in those days after the earthquake?

It's hard to adapt yourself to this, it's a whole different ball game. I did not have any meds and my injured fingers started to get infected. We were sleeping on the ground with the mosquitoes, the wind, the cold and the loud noises of airplanes coming in and out of the airport. Fortunately some colleagues were able to recover my Blackberry -- it was damaged but functional.

We were able to get together, us members of the federation, and we all did our best to get back to work progressively. My kids were fabulous - they were able to send me meds, tents, sleeping bags and some money to cover every day expenses. Physically things got better but it has been a horrible misery up to now.

What help did you receive from your neighboring countries and from FIFA itself?

The support we received was the most comforting. Less than four days after the earthquake, Captain Burrell, the President of the Jamaican Football Federation, arrived in two helicopters sent by the Presidents of FIFA & CONCACAF. We accompanied him on a small tour of the town and met leaders in the stadium and on the ruins of our headquarters. The very emotional report that he wrote touched the world football family even more on the hugeness of the tragedy. The president of the Dominican Football Federation sent colleagues to check on us and find out about our needs. He also sent me some meds that were very precious. President Blatter and a lot of his colleagues called me and assured me that we were not alone.

About two weeks ago, with a lot of difficulties, FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner made it to Port-au-Prince in a private plane and brought us meds, foods and water. He promised to motivate the FIFA committee about our needs, promised that FIFA would help our national teams to keep competing, all in all helping us rebuild our soccer.

At FIFA, last Tuesday, during the meeting of the associations, a lot of Presidents of Federations were present. A minute's silence was observed for all the victims of the earthquake and during a special meeting, President Blatter announced to me that a special fund was created for the reconstruction of our football. FIFA experts will come to Haiti soon to evaluate our needs, build projects that FIFA will finance from this newly created fund. This is a big solidarity move.

On February 26 with the help of the Venezuelan government we will play a charity game in Caracas. On March 7th, with the help of a German TV station, our men's national team will play a game to raise funds that will be used to rebuild the stadium of Leogane that was completely destroyed. Some former world athletes have agreed to participate in this game. The Germans have already visited this stadium and plan to help us for a while with this project. Soccer federations of the whole world - Qatar, Switzerland, Honduras, Nicaragua and Mexico -- offered their help and we are deeply touched by this move.

How many of Haiti's players were affected by the earthquake?

The number of dead and injured announced, is really, really far from reality. The very bad construction of the country, the lack of organization in general, the fact that the first response help got on the ground days after, will make the final numbers very high, higher than the official numbers given. Fortunately with the fact the earthquake happened at 4:53pm, the players of Divisions 1 and 2 were unharmed. The players lost immediate families: parents, wives, children. A lot of young players are orphans. When communication is fully restored and obviously when teams start training again, we will have an idea but the numbers will never be exact.

How does Haiti as a country feel about football?

There is not one Haitian that has not touched a soccer ball. Football is part of the everyday life of Haiti, even with the scary living conditions in Port-au-Prince, even with the fields being occupied, they still play soccer. It is the only entertainment reserved for everybody. At the federation we had the great idea of distributing in the temporary shelters the few soccer balls we were able to recover and it was an explosion of joy. I think it is necessary and mandatory, to help with the psychological recovery of a major part of the population, to free the fields and allow the people to release some stress.

In times of crisis like this does it help having something like football help to focus you?

It is a big challenge that motivates us better, gives us the desire to live. My biggest objective is for the soccer family to become more united every day, because until recently the soccer family was disunited.

We feel that we have more responsibility than before. With all this solidarity coming from all around the world, with the situation of the youth, with this cruel misery and this sudden loss for everybody, we feel that soccer has an important role to play in the reconstruction of this country.

How will you rebuild the federation and how long will it take?

It will be difficult - the conditions are impossible for us. My colleagues at the federation are aware that every time we try to restart the soccer world in Haiti an unfortunate situation puts us back to square one. In 2003 we had to stop everything during a political crisis. In 2003 we had Hurricane Jeanne. In 2005 there was the security crisis with the departure of President Aristide. In 2008 there were the four hurricanes of the summer. Every time it is an exodus of talent, the loss of the buying power of the population and each time we have to start from scratch. Fortunately with new players, the work that we maintain with the young players, with the heavy support of FIFA, we climbed back up the ladder because in all age categories our teams are some of the best in the region.

Do you think the federation will grow strong again in the future?

I want to talk about construction and reconstruction at the same time. Haitian soccer has existed for more than 100 years. Soccer is a tradition deeply involved in the culture, the life of the country. The misery of the country affected its international evolvement but not its creativity, its popularity, its power and national weight. In this domain, with no doubt, everything exists, we will have to motivate - sensibly, because the human factor exists - in order to create an elite of players, to allow young talents to use soccer to get out of the misery, with the goal of obtaining a major professional contract and bringing money back to the country, or attending school abroad.

We need to take charge of the most talented and ask for the resources that we need. We ask for infrastructures in the reconstruction process that the government will start to put at the service of these young talents and sports associations. The Latin American countries insisted on sports infrastructures that didn't exist for the youth.

FIFA will help to rebuild our headquarters. It should be a reality before the end of this year. For the destroyed fields at Leoganea and Petit Goave, this should not take time. Destroyed or not by the earthquake, all the soccer fields are only by name, all of them need to be rebuilt because they weren't really existent before.

With the lack of resources we had in the past we were able to accomplish so much, now with all the support that we will get, we will come back stronger than before.