Homesick for Home Improvement

Samuel Dalembert a.k.a. “The Haitian Sensation” a.k.a. “Dalembeast” is also known as the man who began The Samuel Dalembert Foundation(SDF) because despite arriving to the NBA from Haiti via Montreal and New Jersey, he remembers well that Haiti’s hardships are hardly the result of a single earthquake.

Samuel Dalembert says he’s still just “Sammy” back in Haiti.  Here in the United States he’s a shot blocking beast who plays center for the Phildadelphia 76ers. “The mission of the SDF is to better the lives of the people of Haiti and children all over the world through projects that empower individuals to seek out and achieve sustainable improvements in their daily lives. The Foundation strives to foster charitable partnerships to support established, successful projects and find creative responses to new or unsolved challenges.” And it’s more than a plight or a cause championed by a rags-to-riches super athlete. I’m not sure you forget the hunger pains or the fact that only 5% of your country actually has electricity. One statistic on the SDF website claimed that there’s only 1 hospital for every 100,000 Haitians. Another held that the island is 95% deforested and yet another that there are 280,000 Haitians living with HIV/AIDS. According to the SDF, approximately 80% of Haitians are unemployed and rely on subsistence farming to survive. Needless to say, no one not from Haiti could ever truly understand the depth of compassion Dalembert has toward his homeland.

Are we any different? I’m constantly comparing nations like Haiti, where you can purchase a 12-year old female child as a domestic servant/partner for about $50-$100 (U.S. dollars), with our own beloved United States. Sammy Dalembert spent 14 years living in Haiti before moving to Montreal, Canada. I spent 14 years in Inglewood and South Los Angeles before moving to West Covina. I have stories in the recesses of my mind that at minimum provide an impetus to go after youth, particularly athletes from my side of the tracks. It’s just in you to want to help if you can recall the danger, the helplessness, the hopelessness, etc. that  plagued your environment once-upon-a-time. A CNN broadcast quoted an email that said, “Fix Louisiana and then we’ll talk [about the U.S. pouring into Haiti].” Obviously, I’m not down with such thinking on the whole but I get the sentiment. With that rationale in mind, if we remember the afflictions from whence we came, we’re bound to devote tireless energy away from superfluous hedonism and back toward the desperate populations back home wherever home is.