Andre Berto Aids Haiti, Mourns Family

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1/14/2010 11:46 PM ET By Lem Satterfield

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• • Lem Satterfield
  • Lem Satterfield is FanHouse's Boxing Writer and Editor.

Thursday brought good news and dreadful news for Andre Berto.

Although his sister and oldest sibling, Naomi, had been found alive after nearly two days of wandering Haiti's rubble-filled streets along with her 12-year-old daughter, the list of lost relatives -- those, who, in fact, are known to be dead -- grew to nearly double-digits.

"They [sister and niece] were just lucky. They weren't under any type of structure. They were out in the open ground when it happened," said Berto, a 26-year-old, Haitian-American boxing star, reacting to the devastation caused by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake that leveled the island nation.

"She is my only other sibling who is in Haiti. The rest are cousins, uncles, and grandparents and people like that," said Berto, who represented Haiti in the 2004 Olympics, and whose parents, Diuseul, and, Wilnise, were born, there.

"We lost a few cousins who passed. I've heard that an uncle has passed. We're still looking for the other uncle and other family members right now," said Berto. "Right now, there are about eight or nine relatives in all who we know are dead right now."


Berto (25-0, 19 knockouts) is scheduled to defend his WBC welterweight (147 pounds) title against 38-year-old WBC super champ, Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs), on Jan. 30 in a highly-anticipated, clash at at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.

But for the past few days, the fight of Berto's life has been more about the suffering of his kinsmen than it is his upcoming challenge against Mosley.

"Mentally, I've been trying to get my workouts in, regardless, but my mind has definitely been on this [Hatii] situation. This fight is the biggest fight of my life, but Haiti -- and the people of Haiti -- they are my life," said Berto, who visited Haiti in March as part of a charitable mission, along with others such as Hatian native, Wyclef Jean, an actor and front-man for the hip hop group, The Fugees.

"I got a call from Wyclef [who is in Haiti] yesterday, and we've got some things we'll be working on. But I know that there are a lot of people who are trying to reach out, and to do that, you can go on my website, andreberto.com, or I'll be updating people on my Twitter," said Berto, who is training in Winter Haven, Fla.

"Information will be coming soon on my foundation, which is the Berto Dynasty Foundation, and that should be up in the next few hours or the next day or so. But if they want to do something right now, they can contact the carmafoundation.org.," said Berto. "And tomorrow, the company, Everlast, will be putting up Andre Berto 'Save Haiti' T-shirts on their website to sell, and all of the proceeds go to the relief in Haiti."

(Note: The Red Cross has set up a donation texting system wherein texting "HAITI," followed by, "90999," sends $10 per text to the Haitian Relief Fund. In addition, the U.S. government has designated a telephone number -- 1-888-407-4747 -- for people seeking information about friends and relatives in the country.)

FanHouse: First of all, Andre, how are you doing?

Andre Berto: We're maintaining over here. It's tough. It's hard. We're just trying to keep the family strong. We're just trying to make calls and find other family members and to cope with the fact that there are members that we've lost.

FH: I understand that your older sister, Naomi, is okay?

Berto: Yes, we just found that out this morning. She and her daughter are okay. They actually live right there in the area.

But at the time of the earthquake, they were out walking out in the street to go and meet another friend of hers. And then, when the earthquake hit, her home was destroyed.

Naomi is about 30 years old. Her daughter is about 12. They were just lucky. They weren't under any type of structure. They were out in the open ground when it happened. They were among the lucky ones. They just sought shelter out on the streets.

Even right now, they're still out on the streets right now. We got a chance to get in contact with her through a phone call and another relative of ours who had a cellphone. But everywhere they're living is really damaged, so they can't get out of the city that they're in right now because of all of the rubble.

So they basically have to hang around until they come and try to remove some of the stuff out. So everybody's kind of just hanging around and trying to survive out there on the streets right now.

FH: I understand that your father, Diuseul, was able to reach your sister, Naomi?

Berto: Yes. I didn't get a chance to speak with her. My dad called me this morning, because he didn't get too much time to talk to her because service cut off on him. We had tried all last night to reach her, and he gave me the call this morning that she was okay, and that he finally had gotten a hold of her.

FH: What were your emotions when you heard that your sister was found?

Berto: I was definitely relieved. She was definitely someone we were worried about. We had already heard about a few of our other family members who had passed, and to whom we were really close to. Naomi is my father's oldest and first child, so he was really worried.

That was the first time that I had seen him really that down in a long time. He was really stressed about it. We are definitely relieved. She is my only other sibling who is in Haiti. The rest are cousins, uncles, and grandparents and people like that.

We lost a few cousins who passed. I've heard that an uncle has passed. We're still looking for the other uncle and other family members right now. Right now, there are about eight or nine relatives in all who we know are dead right now.

FH: I understand that you visited Port-au-Prince recently?

Berto: We stayed at The Montana Hotel over there, and, as of right now, from what I've heard, that's where a lot of the U.N. officials were staying.

FH: I understand that The Montana Hotel got trashed. I understand that a lot of U.N. people died at that hotel.

Berto: That's pretty much where anybody, like myself, or, Wyclef (Jean), or anybody who is being protected by the goverment of Haiti stays, and, that whole place just got pancaked. Our whole purpose for going there was to disperse food and to disperse clothes.

We gave out like 10,000 pairs of shoes to the people who didn't have them. We visited schools and spoke to the students. We sponsored a few of the orphanages there. We visited and saw the kids. To get there, and to see all of the problems, we just wanted to make things improve and to make people more aware.

FH: Was there strength among the faces?

Berto: Definitely. People just need to understand the Haitian history. They're the first black republic to fight for their independence in 1804. They're very, very strong people. But at the same time, while I was there, I was documenting footage.

And the word I kept using was that it seemed like, 'Paradise with a black eye.' It's a beautiful, beautiful island, but there is such tremendous poverty. But at the same time, it was still beautiful. The people there are really happy.

The people are beautiful. They just loved life even though they really didn't have that much. That's the thing that got me. I just felt like I wanted to stay there for months and months. They just enjoyed themselves.

They just enjoyed their nature that was around. They just enjoyed each other. Even though they had really hard situations and circumstances.

FH: Can you go into more detail concerning the circumstances you're referring to?

Berto: We went to a lot of orphanages. There were kids who didn't have homes. They didn't have parents. The orphanages that we went to, a lot of the kids were sleeping on cement blocks. Their bathroom facilities weren't really functioning. They just had a big hole that went into the ground -- like two feet down. That's what the bathroom facilities were.

Not too many kids had shoes on their feet. They didn't always know where the next meal was going to come from. They kind of looked like prisons. But that's all that they knew. They dealt with it, but they have needs.

FH: Were you able to speak to the children?

Berto: A lot of kids, we went down there and we spoke to them in the orphanages and in some of the villages. They just wanted a kind of vocational center, where they can go and learn trades. They wanted to go out and get jobs. They wanted to be able to go to work and to be able to go to certain schools.

They just wanted opportunities to go and to learn to work.

FH: Given that, how difficult is it for you to have to watch this from afar?

Berto: It's just devastating. Seeing the images on television. Just to hear all of the relatives that we've had a chance to get into contact with. To hear their voices and their cries, it's been unreal.

FH: How do you reconcile something like this spiritually?

Berto: All that you can do is pray. My family, my parents, we're very religious. All that you can do is pray. But at the same time, you sit back and you ask, 'Why?' It's a country that really doesn't have a lot in the first place to begin with.

I was there a couple of months ago in March, with another organization - The Carma Foundation --- which was founded by Wyclef Jean's sister. We took food, and we fed a lot of people. We gave out about 10,000 pairs of shoes. We gave out a lot of products and did a lot of charity work.

But there was so much more work to do. These are people who just didn't have too much at all. But they were still so full of pride. It's just a really tough situation, knowing that this really touches base and that this hits really so close to home.

FH: Is it tough to prepare for your upcoming fight with Shane Mosley on Jan. 30?

Berto: Mentally, I've been trying to get my workouts in, regardless, but my mind has definitely been on this [Haitii] situation. This fight is the biggest fight of my life, but Haiti -- and the people of Haiti -- they are my life.

At times, I feel badly just sitting here, watching everything on television, hearing all of their cries and not being able to do anything about it. For right now, I'm trying to do all that I can here, while I'm here.

If I didn't have a fight coming up, I'd be in Haiti right now. So I'm just trying to deal with it and do all of the best that I can from this point.