Dwight Howard visits Haiti to see refugees and play basketball with kids.

Dwight Howard visits Haiti to see refugees and play basketball with kids.

NBA All-Star forward Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic visited Haiti on Friday to see refugees and play basketball with kids.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Haiti Olympic Committee invited the player to come to the impoverished nation.

Upon his arrival in the Caribbean country, Howard announced that he has put up a fund with an initial amount of $100,000 to support educational and recreational programs for the children of Haiti.

Haiti was hit by a powerful earthquake measuring 7.0 in the Richter scale on January 12 that left 250,000 dead and flattened its capital Port-Au-Prince. Many homeless Haitians now live in tent cities as refugees.

“I came down here because a lot of people in the [United] States have forgotten the disaster that happened in Haiti,” said Howard after playing hoops with about 50 children in a tent city.

“My objective is just to come over here and put a smile on kids' faces,” he said.

Howard added that the Haiti disaster has “been on my mind everyday. And I want to make sure that I do my part. I wanted to show my support.”

The basketball star said that upon his return to the United States he intends to “tell the people that, still we need to give a lot of aid. We just can't forget” about the 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,” Howard said.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Saturday September 18 2010, 1:49 PM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0