by Celine Elveus (BPRW)
MIAMI – The name Wyclef is not new to us. We know that the artist is a Grammy Award Winner and has been a prominent musician for more than a decade. He was a member of the now-defunct group Fugees, which rose to fame in the 1990s.
What some of us might not know is that since January 2007, Wyclef Jean has been appointed Haiti’s roving ambassador by the country’s president, Rene Preval. His duties include promoting the country abroad to bring a positive light to the island nation.
Nelus Wyclef Jean, named after the English Theologian John Wycliffe, was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti on October 17, 1972. He moved to the United States when he was nine years old. As a young preacher’s son, Wyclef was very interested in music. He began playing the guitar in High School. Also while in high school, he met Lauryn Hill through his classmate and friend, Prakazrel Michel. The three of them formed the Tranzlator Crew, later renamed Fugees. In 1997, Wyclef went solo and introduced his first solo album “The Carnival.” He has been in the public eye ever since. Undoubtedly, Wyclef has always expressed his love and altruistic intentions to elevate his country. He created a not-for-profit organization called Yele Haiti to assist the nation’s impoverished children.
Yele Haiti was created in January 2005 to help bring hope to the hopeless. The organization has provided jobs to many men and women in Haiti, given out scholarships to many students and most importantly, provided food to the country’s poorest sections. Wyclef’s organization is also involved in cleaning up the streets of Port-au-Prince. Its efforts have expanded to higher education, environmental awareness, sports, and HIV prevention. As the creator of the organization, Wyclef has not taken a back seat.
To the contrary, he is constantly in Haiti promoting musical contests to try to give impetuous youth another alternative to drug-dealing and gang-banging.
The president of Haiti could not have chosen a better person for the job. Maybe it is in his genes to do the right thing, as his father was a minister. Either that or Wyclef Jean is simply a true believer of giving back instead of sitting back and criticizing the system. Jean is physically changing what he thinks should be changed. He is not professing his love for his country through empty words from afar. He is doing it by making sure Haiti gets another chance at making it right. Who better to represent the country than him when he truly has the country’s best interest at heart? Appointing Wyclef Jean as Haiti’s Ambassador is a sign that the country is taking a step forward in the right direction. Vive Wyclef Jean!
