Wyclef Jean becomes local hero for destitute Haitians
Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean was given a hero’s welcome in one of Haiti’s most destitute slums, riding on the shoulders of his cheering countrymen to the site of a small-business project he helped develop.
On his first trip to Haiti since being named a roving ambassador by President Rene Preval in January, the musician met legislators and accompanied Czech model Petra Nemcova to a school in the impoverished neighborhood where he was born.
Jean, who moved to Brooklyn as a young boy, later changed into a pinstriped suit on Monday to ask a luncheon crowd of businessmen, the United Nations envoy and nearly every major foreign ambassador for aid.
“We need all your money, we need all y’all’s support, but let’s put it to programs … that teach kids how to move the country forward,” Jean told dignitaries at a restaurant in the hills above the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Nemcova, who founded her own charity after she was injured and her boyfriend killed in the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, also joined Jean in visiting the slum’s new Voila cell phone store and an adjacent cooperative restaurant sponsored by Jean’s charity group, Yele Haiti.
Source:
Associated Press
carolyn Baxter wrote:
Wycleff Jean is aperson who Never forgets who he is or where he is from.If every black person we to remember that struggle and pain of our heratage,and respond like him.We would be much further along socially.When I saw City Solie,It completly changed my life.The poverty made the ”Projects”in NYC seem like Luxury penthouses.Not to metion the relationship of the 2 brothers of the story.The outcome of the story also had a personal meaning for me as well,which was always’s keep family close and protect them no matter what.No split,no divide keep close and work things out at all costs.Because like the saying goes”you can never go Home again”
Posted on 18-Nov-07 at 8:18 am | Permalink