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On September 17-19, 2010, Dwight traveled to Haiti in September to visit organizations working to alleviate the distress of children in Haiti in the aftermath of the January earthquake. Dwight was invited by the United Nation’s children’s fund (UNICEF) and Haiti’s Olympic Committee, announced shortly after arriving that he has put 100,000 dollars in a fund he is managing aimed at supporting educational and recreational programs for Haitian children.
Upon arriving in Haiti, Dwight visited several organizations, including the Haitian Olympic Committee (COH), where he visited COH’s youth recreation program within Parc Acra Camp, a tent settlement camp of over 4000 residents in Port-au-Prince. The program provides kids living in the tent camp an opportunity for organized playtime to give them the chance to be kids despite their harsh living conditions. There Dwight announced that the DHF is donating funds to ensure the program’s continuation. He also ran basketball drills with attending kids (approximately 300 children) and distributed black & blue DHF wristbands.
Dwight also visited the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI) where he was a special guest at Maranatha School in Cité Soleil which has 129 enrolled students between the ages of 6 to 13 years. The school organized a special morning of play for the kids in honor of Dwight’s visit and their basketball court in which their basketball court was flooded with over 200 children. The kids sang songs to welcome Dwight and put on a karate demonstration for him. There Dwight announced that the Dwight Howard Fund will support the school for the 2010-2011 school year by covering the cost of teacher salaries, uniforms and school kits.
The final organization visited during his trip was the Global Outreach Haiti Mission, TiTanyen, Haiti, just 15 miles north of Port-au-Prince. There, in partnership with Blessing in a Backpack, Dwight will provide daily nutritious meals for roughly 250 school children throughout the school year. The impoverished Caribbean country was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12 that killed 250,000 people and destroyed much of the capital, forcing hundreds of thousands into tent cities.
"My objective is just to come over here and put a smile on kids’ faces,” Many have forgotten about the Haitian earthquake victims, he said. "It’s been on my mind everyday. And I want to make sure that I do my part. I wanted to show my support." We just can’t forget" about the Haitian quake victims.” Every time I will step on the court I will think about all the kids in Haiti and around the world and just how much I can inspire them.”