In my last post, I talked about a newspaper article that mentioned the humanitarian works of two gentlemen for which little recognition has been give. In this post, I hope to shed some light on these two men.
Nwankwo Kanu was born in Nigeria and is a professional footballer. After discovering in 1996 that he had a heart defect, he founded the Kanu Heart Foundation which helps young African children suffering from heart conditions. Kanu was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. This position has given him the ability to encourage girls in Nigeria to enroll in school, tackle AIDS/HIV by youth empowerment and boost routine immunizations.
Dikembe Mutombo is probably best know as an NBA player for the Houston Rockets and the incident that occurred last year when a fan yelled racial slurs at him. The man latter apologized. Mutombo is an adoptive parent and speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and 5 African languages. Mutombo founded the Dikembe Mutombo foundation to improve living conditions in his native Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. He earned the NBA's Humanitarian award in 2001. He is also involved in Basketball without Borders which tours African countries and helps to improve infrastructure. Mutombo is a spokes person for CARE. In 1997, his foundation began plans for a 300 bed hospital outside of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital. The hospital opened in 2006. The facility was the first modern medical facility to be built in nearly 30 years.
I tend to agree with the article in that these two gentlemen should be recognized for their good works more in the media, but at the same time, I take solace in knowing that the Lord's face has shown upon them and in the end, they will be recognized by the only One that truely matters.
A short update on our adoption journey, the dossier is now in the mail and we had a good visit with a travel clinic this past week (more details to come). We have passed the adoption timeline torch onto our agency and need to settle in for a long wait.
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