Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Quality Summer Time

Mo joined forces with others to
distribute millions of pounds of food

Spending quality time in Kenya this summer, Maurice is helping along with an NBA contingent that includes Ron Artest, Theo Ratliff and Etan Thomas in conjunction with "Feed the Children" co-founders Larry and Frances Jones. The goal was to distribute 44 million meals to 1 million residents during one week.

The NBA players, in Kenya to help feed children, quickly realized food wasn't all that was needed. Electricity, heat and drinking water -- necessities rather than luxuries in most parts of the world -- were also missing. Ron Artest called it the worst place he'd ever seen. Maurice Evans emptied his pockets to buy shoes for kids who were walking barefoot over the filthy ground.

"It was way, way worse than what I expected," the Lakers' Evans said Tuesday from Nairobi during a phone interview. "People are actually living in slums. We call it ghettos and we have projects and places like that, but those are like mansions in Beverly Hills compared to what these people are living in."

"To see what I have seen here is amazing. You see, poverty cannot be measured. Am glad to have come and been part of this," a humbled Evans said.