Dikembe Mutombo: A Humanitarian for Life

“This is something I will do the rest of my life. No matter what I go do, whether it is working for the league or business for myself, doing humanitarian work, I don’t think there will be anybody who can stop me.”

After 18 seasons in NBA, Dikembe Mutombo is just a few weeks away from retirement.  “I don’t want to leave this game and have something haunt me, like I complained about playing or my minutes. I just want to be happy. One thing I’m very happy with is the transformation that has happened inside our locker room,” said the Rockets center, “The joy, the peace, the smiling on the guys’ faces are very rewarding to see. That is what made me happy, like I accomplished something.”

Accomplished something? While Dikembe is speaking about what he accomplished with the Rockets, my mind drifts elsewhere. It drifts all the way back to the early 80’s. When Bono and the boys were going Into The Heart of a child alongside Bob Geldof who was busy Feeding the World and Elvis Costello was asking us What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding.

‘We’ve been waiting all year, for you…for you…into the heart of a child, I stay a while…into the heart of a child I can smile, I can see my way. Into the heart of a child, I can go back, I can stay a while…into the heart, to the heart of a child…’ U2’s ‘Into the Heart’ lyrics seem to reflect something that Dikembe can relate to.

After all, he’s spent the last decade raising funds for the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital & Research center in Kinshasa (Dem Rep of Congo). Even though the mighty-mighty-fine man has already donated $19M of his own cash, he still needs more, and so he presses on. And he is asking all of us for a little help.

“The latest campaign is to try to go after the grass roots,” Mutombo said. “We can get at least the American people to participate in the treatment of women and children at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital by donating $20 or more a year. The goal is to get 100,000 people to sign up with our Web site (www.DMF.org) or call 1-877-funddmf. We want to get 100,000 people to respond by the end of June.”

Now I’m no stranger to the slumping economy, but I do know most of us wouldn’t miss $20 a year? To save lives? This isnt just a plea, but a movement. And Dikembe is about to go nationwide with it. “I’m going to go nationwide. My prayer is that as many people as we have in Houston, maybe 100,000 will respond to my call to donate $20 or more. After that, I’m planning to go after every city that I played for (Denver, Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York) and see how many people will sign up to the Web site or pick up the phone. This is to run the hospital for medicine and treatment and paying the staff, the doctors and nurses.”

“People would understand and know this is a good cause,” he said. “This is not a cause that Dikembe is calling on us to donate money so he can buy more equipment or more beds. This is now something we already accomplished. The beds are there. The equipment is there. You just want us to buy medicine and buy Tylenol and buy IVs and all that. Malaria is killing more than 1.3 million children alone in the African continent. The Congo lost more than 300,000 children last year alone from malaria. The treatment will cost no more than $10. If we can come up with $2 million for treatment, with 100,000 people donating $20, there is a chance for us to really eradicate malaria in that particular area.”

Think about that people. Together, we CAN eradicate malaria in the Congo. I don’t know about anyone else, but even with an overdue cable bill, I’m still sending 20 bucks. The life of a child shouldn’t be cut short because someone opted to buy a bottle of wine instead of saving a life…but hey, that’s just me.

“Our goal is to prevent as many deaths as we can,“ Dikembe continued, “I know it is going to be difficult to stop people from dying, because death is part of our lives. But to prevent as many deaths as possible, it is up to us to do so.”

It is indeed Dikembe, and this girl’s got your back every step of the way.

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda@athlebrities.com