Wyclef Jean can save Haiti; Sean Penn is a loser

Luke goes to bat for the musician.

By Luther Campbell Thursday, Sep 2 2010

The menu included chicken, rice, vegetables and salads, but there were also trays of cookies and a frozen yogurt machine complete with chocolate jimmies and other toppings.

Backup guard Max Jean-Gilles remained in the locker room, sipping water from a thermos. Clear liquids will be his diet for the entire week after undergoing gastric lap band surgery earlier in the week in Somerset, N.J.

The 26-year-old Jean-Gilles, who is preparing for his fifth season with the Eagles, is believed to be the first active NFL player to have the procedure.

“I wanted to lose about 50, 60 pounds for the (upcoming) season, but I mainly did it for life after football,” Jean-Gilles said. “I don’t want to be weighing 400 pounds when I’m done playing the game. My wife (Magdala) and I did some research, then sat down and talked it over.”

Jean-Gilles underwent a same-day, laproscopic procedure in which doctors tied an adjustable silicone device around the top portion of his stomach to restrict the amount of food it can hold.

At the end of last season, Jean-Gilles said he weighed 385 pounds, his highest ever. His goal is to play this season at around 330.

Coach Andy Reid said the Eagles did not encourage Jean-Gilles to have the procedure but also did not object when he suggested it.

“It was his idea,” Reid said with a smile. “I probably would have been the first one to get it if it was our idea, right?”

“I think Max is going to be fine. It’s not going to hinder his play. It will help him, I’d imagine, down the road with the weight.”

Gaining, losing and maintaining weight is an important part of playing in the NFL. Each Eagles player, for example, has to step on a scale once a week to determine if he is close to the goal weight the team’s athletic training staff has assigned. This week, the players were also required to take a test that measures body mass index.

Players who don’t meet their weekly goals are subject to fines.

“It’s tough to keep your weight down for a whole season,” said defensive tackle Antonio Dixon, whose weight ranges between 325 and 330 pounds. “After we’re done practicing and working out, we go home and don’t do a whole lot except play video games.

” I’m better at watching what I eat now that when I was younger, though. When I was in prep school (at Milford Academy in New Berlin, N.Y.), I got up to 356. It snowed all day, every day and being from Miami, I wasn’t used to that. I never worked out and didn’t care what I ate.”

Jean-Gilles has always had trouble with his weight. He came into the league as the Eagles’ fourth-round draft pick in 2006 weighing 358 pounds and has watched his waistline expand year by year. He said he began last season at 360 and added 25 more pounds over the next four months.

Soon after the season ended, Jean-Gilles and his wife talked about the need for him to lose weight and keep it off. They did some research and dismissed gastric bypass as too invasive. That operation would have sidelined him for six months as opposed to six weeks.

“I’m in the boat with Max with this,” Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder said. “I know his struggles and he feels like he’s at the breaking point in his pro career and that if he didn’t do something about his weight, he wouldn’t be able play.

“I take my hat off to him, to a point. I wish he had gone about (losing weight) the traditional way. But he bought into our program. He worked hard and consulted with a nutritionist and nothing worked.”

Jean-Gilles will miss all of this minicamp and a few of the OTAs, or organized team activities, but expects to be ready to go full speed by the time training camp opens in late July.

He will compete with Stacy Andrews for the starting job at right guard until Nick Cole moves back there. Cole will be the starting center while Jamaal Jackson recovers from knee surgery.

“I’ve been big all my life and always struggled,” Jean-Gilles said. “My metabolism is so slow that I would eat for one day and it would take two days for me to burn it off. I was to the point where I was tired of the Eagles telling me to lose weight and me being complacent about it. I didn’t want to let them down again.

“But I really decided to do it for the future. After last season, I realized that I can’t keep living like this, weighing so much that I was breathing heavy all the time. I figure that 330 will allow me to keep my power and strength for football and also get me feeling healthy and more confident.”

2:25 p.m. – “We will not let red tape stand in the way of helping those (orphans) in need but we will ensure that international adoption procedures to protect children and families are followed,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday during at appearance in the Washington area.

2:05 p.m. – Oxfam said it expected to send a water truck into Port-au-Prince’s Delmas 48 district for a mass distribution at 3 p.m.

1:11 p.m. – Followers mourn as Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan, founders of three of Haiti’s most important advocacy organizations working on behalf of women and girls, are confirmed dead. Story

1:03 p.m. – At least 11,000 U.S. military service members are now in Haiti or on ships nearby, and the military said Wednesday that it plans to send an additional 4,000 sailors and Marines.

12:46 p.m. – The House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously passed legislation that would allow individuals who make charitable contributions to victims of the earthquake in Haiti to claim an itemized charitable deduction on their 2009 tax return instead of having to wait until next year to claim these deductions on their 2010 tax return. The legislation will not become law until it is passed by the Senate and signed by the president.

12:35 p.m. – The state of Florida reports 191 flights with 6,836 passengers have flown into Florida airports from Haiti since January 13. The state’s Department of Children and Families has provided services to 2,731 Americans returning from Haiti, including 1,611 on Tuesday alone.

Gallery: Relief efforts focus on water, food, medicine

Gallery: Devastation from Haiti earthquake

12:19 p.m. — A funeral is scheduled Wednesday afternoon for Molly Hightower, a 22-year-old from Port Orchard, Washington, who was killed when the earthquake struck a school for disabled children in Petionville where she was volunteering for the charity NPH (Friends of the Orphan). Fellow volunteer Ryan Kloos of Phoenix, Arizona, also was killed.

12:07 p.m. – On Wednesday afternoon, Mercy Corps will distribute nutrient-rich biscuits to nearly 5,000 injured earthquake survivors — many of them children — and their families at General Hospital, Port-au-Prince’s largest hospital.

12:01 p.m. – The hospital ship USNS Comfort, which saw duty in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in 2005 and the 2001 terror attacks in New York, arrived Wednesday morning in the waters off Port-au-Prince. U.S. helicopters will ferry patients aboard, bringing relief to overloaded hospitals and clinics.

11:51 a.m. — Ena Zizi, a woman in her 70s who was rescued from the rubble of Port-au-Prince’s cathedral on Tuesday, is reported to be in stable condition in the care of doctors aboard the USS Bataan. Watch and read about her rescue

10:38 a.m. — Missionary Troy Livesay in Port-au-Prince tweeted: “We have seen little to no violence.It is hppng in isolated areas/incidents.Even now there is less violence/crime here than major US cities.”

10:33 a.m. — CNN iReporter Juliano Puzo used his laptop’s webcam to shoot video of the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake. Watch (Warning: Video includes some profanity in English)

Share your earthquake stories

10:21 a.m. – As of Monday, more than $210 million in donations had been raised for earthquake relief, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations. The estimate is based on a survey of 25 charities contributing the largest amounts of money to Haiti.

How you can help

10:16 a.m. – An engaged couple in Minnesota donated $2,500 — a quarter of their wedding budget — to an agency providing medical care in Haiti. Watch

9:02 a.m. – Louis Belanger, media officer for the relief agency Oxfam, sent a message via Twitter: “Ppl quite edgy after aftershock, especially Haitian staff. Still, we are starting distribution in 5 sites today in Haiti.”

7:30 a.m. – Wednesday morning’s aftershock sent patients at a hospital near Haiti’s airport in Port-au-Prince into loud prayers for forgiveness and protection, a nurse said.

iReport.com: Looking for loved ones

6:03 a.m. – A strong magnitude 6.1 aftershock struck Haiti. Its epicenter was 36 miles west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, the United States Geological Survey said.

4:17 a.m. — The Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort is due to arrive off Haiti at midmorning Wednesday, carrying nearly 550 doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel. The ship will have six operating rooms available and can house up to 1,000 patients.

Another urged women to pack a courtroom in Haiti, where she succeeded in getting a guilty verdict against a man who battered his wife.

A third joined the others and helped change the law to make rape, long a political weapon in Haiti, a punishable crime.

Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan, founders of three of the country’s most important advocacy organizations working on behalf of women and girls, are confirmed dead — victims of last week’s 7.0 earthquake.

And their deaths have left members of the women’s movement, Haitian and otherwise, reeling.

“Words are missing for me. I lost a large chunk of my personal, political and social life,” Carolle Charles wrote in an e-mail to colleagues. The Haitian-born sociology professor at Baruch College in New York is chair of Dwa Fanm (meaning “Women’s Rights” in Creole), a Brooklyn-based advocacy group. These women “were my friends, my colleagues and my associates. I cannot envision going to Haiti without seeing them.”

Myriam Merlet was until recently the chief of staff of Haiti’s Ministry for Gender and the Rights of Women, established in 1995, and still served as a top adviser. She died after being trapped beneath her collapsed Port-au-Prince home, Charles said. She was 53.

Merlet, an author as well as an activist, fled Haiti in the 1970s. She studied in Canada, steeping herself in economics, women’s issues, feminist theory and political sociology.

In the mid-1980s, she returned to her homeland. In “Walking on Fire: Haitian Women’s Stories of Survival and Resistance,” published in 2001, she contributed an essay, “The More People Dream,” in which she described what brought her back.

“While I was abroad I felt the need to find out who I was and where my soul was. I chose to be a Haitian woman,” she wrote. “We’re a country in which three-fourths of the people can’t read and don’t eat properly. I’m an integral part of the situation. I am not in Canada in a black ghetto, or an extraterrestrial from outer space. I am a Haitian woman. I don’t mean to say that I am responsible for the problems. But still, as a Haitian woman, I must make an effort so that all together we can extricate ourselves from them.”

She was a founder of Enfofamn, an organization that raises awareness about women through media, collects stories and works to honor their names. Among her efforts, she set out to get streets named after Haitian women who came before her, Charles said.

Dubbed a “Vagina Warrior,” she was remembered Tuesday by her friend Eve Ensler, the award-winning playwright and force behind V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

“She was very bold,” said Ensler, who at Merlet’s insistence brought her play “The Vagina Monologues” to Haiti and helped establish safe houses for women in Port-au-Prince and Cap Hatien. “She had an incredible vision of what was possible for Haitian women, and she lifted their spirits. … And we had such a wonderful time. I remember her dancing in the streets of New Orleans and just being so alive.”

Magalie Marcelin, a lawyer and actress who appeared in films and on stage, established Kay Fanm, a women’s rights organization that deals with domestic violence, offers services and shelter to women and makes microcredits, or loans, available to women working in markets, said Charles, the chair of Dwa Fanm.

Charles remembered a visit to Haiti about two years ago when Marcelin, believed to be in her mid-50s, called seeking help. Hoping to deflect the political clout of a defendant in court, she asked for women to come out in droves and pack the courtroom. Charles watched as the man on trial was convicted for battering his wife.

Her death has been reported through various media outlets, and was confirmed to CNN by Carribbean Radio Television based in Port-au-Prince. Her own daughter helped dig her body out from rubble in the aftermath of the quake, Charles said she learned when she got the call from Marcelin’s cousin.

In an interview last year with the Haitian Times, Marcelin spoke of the image of a drum that adorned public awareness stickers.

“It’s very symbolic in the Haitian cultural imagination,” Marcelin said, according to the Haitian Times report. “The sound of the drum is the sound of freedom, it’s the sound of slaves breaking with slavery.”

With Merlet, Anne Marie Coriolan, 53, served as a top adviser to the women’s rights ministry.

Coriolan, who died when her boyfriend’s home collapsed, was the founder of Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women, or SOFA), which Charles described as an advocacy and services organization.

Her daughter, Wani Thelusmon Coriolan, said in Haiti children bear only their father’s surname, but her mother insisted on keeping her maiden name and making sure her two children shared it, too.

“She said my dad was not the only one who created me. She was involved, too,” her 24-year-old daughter, who lives and is studying in Montreal, Quebec, said with a laugh.

Even though Wani and her brother no longer live in Haiti (he is in Paris, France), she said her mother was determined to make sure they were proud of their homeland.

“She loved her country. She never stopped believing in Haiti. She said that when you have a dream you have to fight for it,” Wani said. “She wanted women to have equal rights. She wanted women to hold their heads high.”

Coriolan was a political organizer who helped bring rape — “an instrument of terror and war,” Charles said — to the forefront of Haitian courts.

Before 2005, rapes in Haiti were treated as nothing more than “crimes of passion,” Charles explained. That changed because of the collective efforts of these women activists — and others they inspired.

With the three leaders gone, there is concern about the future of Haiti’s women and girls. Even with all that’s been achieved, the struggle for equality and against violence remains enormous.

The chaos that’s taken over the devastated nation heightens those worries, said Taina Bien-Aimé, the executive director of Equality Now, a human rights organization dedicated to women.

Before the disaster struck last week, a survey of Haitian women and girls showed an estimated 72 percent had been raped, according to study done by Kay Fanm. And at least 40 percent of the women surveyed were victims of domestic violence, Bien-Aimé said.

And humanitarian emergencies have been linked to increased violence and exploitation in the past, she said.

“From where we stand,” Bien-Aimé wrote in an e-mail, “the most critical and urgent issue is what, if any, contingencies the relief/humanitarian agencies are putting in place not only to ensure that women have easy access to food, water and medical care, but to guarantee their protection.”

Concerned women in the New York area plan to gather Wednesday to strategize their next steps, Ensler said.

And while they will certainly keep mourning, she and the others are hopeful that Haitian women, inspired by these fallen heros and leaders, will forge ahead — keeping their fight and legacies alive.

The agency supports grass-roots, community-based organizations in remote locations whose needs are not always met by larger organizations. To donate to its Haiti relief efforts, go to ajws.org/haitiearthquake/ or mail a check to 45 W. 36th St., 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Make checks out to American Jewish World Service, and in the memo section write “Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund.” You may also call 1-800-889-7146 or 212-792-2900. The group will use the funds for immediate needs, such as psychological and social support; health services and education on hygiene and disease prevention; mobilizing volunteers in Haiti to help with rescue and aid distribution; and aid to the Haitian Dominican community, who can coordinate with the Dominican government for greater support; in addition to long-term rebuilding plans.

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross’ primary focus during the initial response of an emergency is feeding, sheltering and supplying any other basic needs. To donate: Go to RedCross.org, hit donate now button at top and then International Response Fund. You also can text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to the International Response Fund. The money will go directly to relief efforts in Haiti. Or call 1-800-Red-Cross.

AmeriCares

This nonprofit disaster relief organization delivers medicine, medical supplies and aid to people in crisis around the world. To donate, call 1-800-486-HELP or go to AmeriCares.org. Donations will go toward medicine and medical supplies and for expenses for providing that medical aid.

Care

This humanitarian organization’s main focus is to fight global poverty, specifically by empowering marginalized women and girls. To donate to the Haiti relief fund effort, go to Care.org or call 1-800-521-CARE. Money will go toward food, water and sanitation, shelter and emergency health response.

Catholic Relief Services

Catholic Relief Services is an aid agency that works with emergency relief, micro-finance, AIDS/HIV relief, agriculture, water and sanitation, among other projects in countries around the world. To donate, go to crs.org, or call 1-877-HELP-CRS. You also can text RELIEF to 30644. You will receive a text message back with instructions on how to donate. You can send a check to Catholic Relief services, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090. Write “Haiti earthquake” in memo area. The money will go toward immediate needs, which includes water, food, hygiene kits, bedding and basic cooking utensils, among other items.

Direct Relief International

Direct Relief provides medical attention to those in need on an ongoing basis and in emergencies. Monetary donations go toward medical aid, supplies and equipment in Haiti. To donate, go to directrelief.org or call 805-964-4767 and 800-676-1638, or go through Google Checkout.

Food For the Poor

The agency delivers food, medical supplies and other goods that are donated to the poor. To donate to its Haiti relief efforts, go to foodforthepoor.org, or call 1-800-487-1158. For those living in South Florida, bring donated items to the Food for the Poor headquarters office at 6401 Lyons Road, Coconut Creek, FL 33073. The charity will accept canned fish, canned meat, canned milk, canned baby formula and bottled water. Monetary donations will go toward purchasing food and supplies as well as shipping costs.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity provides affordable, safe shelter for low-income families and people in need. Money donated for Haiti relief efforts will go toward recovery and rebuilding. To donate, go to habitat.org or call 1-800-Habitat.

International Medical Corps

This emergency response agency focuses on health in emergency situations. Monetary donations go toward purchasing medical supplies, medicine and emergency kits and transporting these supplies. Call 1-800-481-4462 or go to imcworldwide.org

International Relief Teams

The nonprofit organizes volunteer teams to provide medical and non-medical assistance to victims of disasters and poverty. To donate, go to irteams.org or call 619-284-7979. Checks can be made out to International Relief Teams, 4560 Alvarado Canyon Road, Suite 2G, San Diego, CA 92120-4309. The money will be used for medical supplies, medicine and other relief supplies, and to support volunteers heading to Haiti for relief efforts.

Love a Child

The Christian-based humanitarian relief agency focuses on giving aid to children and their families in Haiti. To donate, go to loveachild.com, or call 1-800-645-4868. You can mail a check to P.O Box 30744 Tampa, FL 33630-3744. Please write “Haiti Earthquake” or “where most needed” on memo line of check. Monetary donations will be used for food, clothing, shelter, schools and medical needs, among other program services.

Medical Teams International

The Christian global health organization sends volunteer medical teams and supplies to those in the midst of disaster or poverty. Monetary donations will go to supporting the medical teams being sent to Haiti and to the cost of shipping the medical supplies donated by corporations. Donate by going to medicalteams.org and clicking on the “Donate Now” button, or call 1-800-959-HEAL (4325) or send a check to Medical Teams International, P.O. Box 10, Portland, OR 97207.

Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

The humanitarian organization delivers medical care to people caught in crisis. Donations to its Haiti relief efforts will go toward repairing the obstetrics and trauma hospitals in Haiti that were damaged in the earthquake. They also will go to transporting an additional 70 doctors and medical supplies to the island in an effort to set up makeshift emergency medical response centers. To donate, go to doctorswithoutborders.org or call 1-888-392-0392.

Mercy Corps

The organization provides humanitarian assistance and economic opportunities in the world’s toughest places, specifically those dealing with poverty, conflict and instability. To donate, go to MercyCorps.org. Money will go toward immediate humanitarian needs in Haiti, which may include, food, water and temporary shelter.

Operation USA

The international relief agency provides funding for reconstruction and development aid to communities that have experienced disasters, disease and poverty. For its Haiti relief efforts, the agency plans to use donations for health care materials, water purification supplies and food supplements. To donate, go to opusa.org or call 1-800-678-7255, or mail a check to Operation USA, 3617 Hayden Ave., Suite A, Culver City, CA 90232.

Project Hope

Project Hope responds to crises with medical supplies and medical volunteers, and it is committed to long-term sustainable health care. To donate, go to projecthope.org or mail a check to 255 Carter Hall Lane, Millwood, VA 22646. Monetary donations will be used for shipments of medicine and medical supplies and for deployment of volunteer doctors and nurses to Haiti.

Project MediShare

The agency’s sole purpose is to improve the health and well-being of Haitian people. To donate, go to ProjectMediShare.org, or you can send a check, cash or in-kind donation (including medicines and medical supplies) to Project MediShare, 8260 NE Second Ave., Miami, FL 33138. Money will go toward medical care in Haiti and to send medical teams there.

Samaritan’s Purse

The nondenominational evangelical Christian organization works through local churches and partners on the ground. The aid agency provides spiritual and physical aid to the poor, sick and suffering. To donate, go to Samaritanspurse.org, or call 1-800-528-1980. To give by mail, send donations to Samaritan’s Purse, P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607-3000. Money will go toward temporary shelter, water purification, hygiene kits, blankets, medicine and medical teams.

Save the Children

The independent organization focuses on children in need in the U.S. and globally through programs for health and nutrition, child protection and education. To donate, go to savethechildren.org, or call 1-800-728-3843 or 203-221-4030. Donations will go toward purchasing relief items, such as hygiene kits, family kits (pots, pans, food preparation items) and tarps.

The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army’s mission is to provide food, shelter, clothing and spiritual comfort during disasters. To donate money, go to salvationarmyusa.org or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY. Make sure you designate the donation for “Haiti Earthquake.” Money will go to the Salvation Army in Haiti, which will determine the country’s immediate needs, including water, food, medicine and transportation.

Shelterbox

The nonprofit delivers boxes of supplies to families of up to 10 people. The boxes contain a tent and essential equipment to use while individuals are displaced or homeless. To donate, call 941-907-6036 or go to shelterboxusa.org.

U.S. Fund for UNICEF

The national committee for UNICEF is responsible for the organization’s fundraising. UNICEF uses the money for health care, clean water, nutrition, education and emergency relief. To donate, go to Unicefusa.org or 1-800-4-UNICEF.

World Concern

The organization lifts people out of poverty, beginning with disaster response and ending when families can live sustainable lives. To donate to its relief effort, go to Worldconcern.org or call 1-866-530-5433. You can also mail checks to 19303 Fremont Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98133. Please specify that the check is for “Haiti Disaster Response.” Money will go toward water supplies, shelter, blankets, distribution of food and long-term needs, such as job training, education, loans and home construction, among other projects.

World Food Programme

The food assistance agency’s main focus is to fight hunger worldwide. The organization is working to bring food to Haiti. To donate, go to wfp.org.

World Neighbors

The agency trains and educates communities to solve hunger, poverty and disease. To donate, go to wn.org or call 405-752-9700 or you can mail a check to World Neighbors, 4127 NW 122nd St., Oklahoma City, OK, 73120 and write “Haiti Fund” on memo line. Monetary donations will be used to support short-term needs (i.e. food, water and supplies) and long-term development programs.

World Water Relief

The agency’s main focus is bringing clean water to developing countries. To donate, go to worldwaterrelief.org or mail checks to 8343 Roswell Road, Suite 455 Atlanta, GA 30350-2810 or call 404-242-1601 or 214-500-9417. Money will go directly to water filtration systems that will be installed in Haiti.

Yele Haiti

This organization, founded by Wyclef Jean, creates projects to improve the quality of education, health, environment and community development in Haiti. To donate to to its Haiti relief efforts, go to yele.org or text YELE to 501501 to donate $5.

Other organizations seeking donations

• Adventist Development and Relief Agency

• CARE

• Compassion International

• Concern Worldwide

• Clinton Foundation

• Episcopal Relief & Development

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

• George W. Bush Presidential Center

• International Organization for Migration

• International Rescue Committee

• Map International

• Medical Teams International

• Mercy & Sharing

• Operation Blessing International

• Oxfam America

• Pan American Relief

• Partners in Health

• Salesian Missions

• United Nations Foundation

• United Way Worldwide

• UNICEF USA

• World Health Organization

By JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@MiamiHerald.com