Deng bringing hope to his homeland

By NICK HUT - nhut@nwherald.com
Northwest Herald

Luol Deng heads to the Sudan this summer hoping to see some people about a merry-go-round.

Well, sort of.

In a war-torn country that lacks many essentials, including water, innovation often is key to easing the endemic poverty and famine.

Deng once met a man who used the merry-go-round concept to design a water pump. As the device spins, it pumps water from the ground.

“One pumping roundabout would make a huge difference to a village in Sudan,” Deng said. “I’m trying to arrange 10 of them.”

Deng is like other NBA players from Africa in that although basketball is his job, even a passion, it is not what he considers his life’s work.

Helping the millions of impoverished people on his home continent drives him when he is away from the court.

“Part of it is my parents, how I was raised,” the Bulls forward said. “Part of it is just knowing that Africa is part of my identity and it needs help. The task is gigantic, and there aren’t many people with the resources to help that a pro athlete would have.

“The other thing I think about is that I could easily still be over there, and I’d want someone to help me and give me a reason to hope. I think that motivates a lot of us who come from there.”

Many of the approximately 20 NBA players who either are from Africa or of direct African descent do substantial work on behalf of the continent.

Houston Rockets veteran center Dikembe Mutombo, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire), might well be the NBA’s foremost humanitarian.

Mutombo personally donated $15 million toward a $29 million, 300-bed hospital on the outskirts of his hometown, Kinshasa. It was the area’s first modern medical facility in almost 40 years, and a huge benefit in a country with an average life expectancy of about 45 years.

“People in my country are dying,” Mutombo said, “and I want to save them.”

New Jersey Nets center DeSagana Diop grew up in Senegal, where contracting malaria from mosquito bites always was a primary concern. The disease is the leading killer of children in Africa, killing more than 3,000 children a day, according to the World Health Organization.

Diop has joined Deng in the Nothing But Nets campaign, a United Nations program to raise money for bed nets that keep mosquitoes away while kids sleep under them.

Deng has pledged $50 to Nothing But Nets for every shot he makes this season. Diop, a defensive specialist, will give $100 for every blocked shot.

“I lost friends and relatives to malaria,” Diop said. “Every night, you were just lying there, defenseless.”

As generous as players such as Deng, Diop and Mutombo are with their time, money and spirit, they face significant obstacles.

Deng said food and other supplies too often are diverted away from the needy. Shipments are vulnerable to being hijacked by armies. Sometimes corrupt government officials pilfer items.

As often as anything else, bogus companies perpetrate scams, taking advantage of the lack of regulation and oversight. Deng’s charitable foundation has not lost any money to fraud, but he wonders whether it is a matter of time.

“It’s so easy to trust one company and then the next day, they don’t even exist,” Deng said. “They just disappear. You find out they don’t have a physical address or anything.”

Even when everything is on the up-and-up, progress requires perseverance.

Mutombo said he nearly lost the land the government had given him for the hospital because it was not being used while he secured funding. Refugees displaced during the country’s recent civil war, started constructing homes or farming the land.

Mutombo tried to have the people removed peacefully, then got the army and national police involved. He eventually paid the equivalent of almost $100 each to about 40 women who had been setting up small farms.

“You don’t just say you want to do something and do it,” Deng said. “You have to be very resilient. That’s one reason I want to visit, because the more contacts you make that you can trust, the better your chances of getting something done.”

Deng’s trip to the Sudan this summer will be his first appearance in his homeland since he was 5. As civil war was breaking out, Deng’s father, Aldo, a government official, moved his family to Egypt and then London.

The war has killed as many as 400,000 and displaced more than 2 million. The situation has improved, but simply traveling in Sudan still is perilous.

Deng has ideas for how to stay safe.

“I don’t think it’s even a good idea to be in a crew,” Deng said. “I want to be low-key. I don’t want to bring a lot of attention.

“It depends on where you are. In the South, you’d be in a village, [where] a lot of people have no idea [who you are]. They’re just minding their own business. In the North, it’s more city.”

It’s all worth it for the chance to make a difference.

As Deng said, if not for a well-connected dad and a few lucky breaks, he could be one of the millions of people he is trying to help.

“[Going back] will be a big moment for me,” Deng said. “For Sudan, it won’t mean anything unless I get these water pumps.”

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