BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – HAITIAN-BORN Grammy Award winner Wyclef Jean will be honoured by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) this week.
The NAACP will present the singer with the group`s Vanguard Award at the 41st annual Image Awards, set to air live from the Shrine Auditorium in LA on Friday, February 26 from 8-10 p.m. ET on Fox network.
According to caribeworld.com, Jean was chosen based on his work to improve racial and social issues. Jean moved to Brooklyn, NY at the age of 13 and then to NJ and has had a long career in the music industry, starting out with the
Fugees and then began a solo career in 1997. He currently has six solo albums to his credit, with the seventh one due sometime this year.
His music crosses genres from Hip-Hop, Reggae, Compas, R&B, Folk and Bachata. In 2005 Jean established the Yele Haiti Foundation with a quarter of a million dollars of his own money. He coined the term Yele and it comes from a creole word that means “to scream”.
The artiste chose it because he wanted his cry for his country to be heard. The foundation was created to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to his homeland.
In its first year of operation, Yele Haiti provided scholarships to 3 600 students, and has concentrated efforts on education, arts, sports, food distribution and emergency relief. Yele Haiti now has an annual operating budget of $3M.
After the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti, Jean was on a plane to his homeland almost immediately and worked tirelessly to help during the disaster and to raise money and awareness of his country`s plight.
