Ali joins Juárez aid effort

'Greatest' turns talents to helping border poor

Diana Washington Valdez El Paso Times

Legendary boxer Muhammad Ali helped paved the way for a new mega-relief project in Juárez that began Sunday with a truckload of food and other gifts for needy families.

The retired heavyweight champion, who was known for his brash style, showed people along the border why many today still call him "the greatest." Ali, "the philanthropist," was introduced after his arrival at a news conference at the Camino Real, where El Paso Mayor Carlos Ramirez presented him with the key to the city.

After that, Ali hopped an trolley bound for Juárez with Suzie Valadez, an El Paso missionary with Christ for Mexico who regularly feeds about 3,000 needy people in the Juárez dump area, where many scavenge for food and other items. The party included a Ryder rental truck loaded with two tons of a special food product and toys.

More food and more "champions" will be coming to the border as a result of Ali's involvement, said Yank Barry, chairman of the Montreal-based Global Village Market.

Barry formerly toured with the Kingsmen, a group famous for the hit son g "Louie, Louie." He founded a company called VitaPro, which makes a food product designed especially to feed the hungry.

The food donated to feed the Juárez families is rich in nutrients, comes in chicken and beef flavors, and can be stored without refrigeration.

Charities and other groups that try to take donated goods into Mexico sometimes run into problems clearing Mexican customs. However, with Ali on board, the truck and other vehicles were waved through Sunday afternoon and did not have to stop for inspection.

The group then proceeded to the Kiki Romero Gimnasio in south Juárez. At the gym, Ali's team passed out bags with the special food product that Global Village markets had donated, along with free toys and T-shirts.

Ali delighted the crowd of more than 300 by doing a magic trick, throwing occasional jabs at the air and pretending to spar with Juárez Mayor Gustavo Elizondo.

"Your boxing days may be over, but you are still a fighter, one who fights for noble causes," Elizondo told Ali.

Ali kissed and hugged children, signed autographs and posed for pictures with anyone who asked.

Juárez resident Eduardo Velasquez said he rode to the gym on a bicycle with his 6-year-old son, Ever.

"I didn't really believe that Ali would be here after I heard it on TV, but I brought my son anyway," Velasquez said. "And look, there he is. Everyone knows him, from movies, the news, his boxing career."

Ali founded Global Village Champions, an organization made up mostly of athletes and musicians who promote humanitarian goodwill. It works with Global Village Market, a company with annual revenues of S350 million, which has carried out humanitarian projects around the world, including Africa 's Ivory Coast , Russia and Bosnia .

Recently, the organization agreed to assist Hands of Love And Hope/Christ for Mexico , a mission run by Suzie Valadez.

Valadez, who's been feeding needy children in Juárez for 37 years, said "Ali's visit was a blessing."

Barry said that "within the next six months, we plan to set up an infirmary and build dorms for the (Juárez) children." He also said a priority will be to get drinking water to the dump area on a re gular basis.

As part of the effort, El Paso 's Sierra Springs donated bottled water for the next four months for the children in the Juárez dump neighborhood of Colonia Morelos.

Eliezer Ben-Joseph, a naturopath who operates Herbs for Health at 7040 North Mesa and who has a radio program on natural health products, was instrumental in introducing Valadez's work to the Global Village organization.

He said celebrities like Ali usually command S500,000 for promotional appearances. "But, because it involved needy children, Ali donated his time entirely," Ben-Joseph said.

Ali jokingly turned to Ben-Joseph and said, "So, you're not going to pay me?"

Ali, who has parkinsonism, made only a few brief comments. The disease affects his nervous system and forces him to walk slowly and speak haltingly.

The stop at the Juárez gym took longer than planned, and Ali was unable to travel on to the south Juárez dump because he had to catch a plane back to Michigan . At 3:15 p.m. , he was whisked away from the gym in a limousine and escorted by Juárez police on motorcycles.

Eboni Washington, 21, president of UTEP's Black Student Coalition, and coalition member William Muhammad, met Ali at the Camino Real press conference.

"We wanted to offer him our help with the project," Washington said.

Major contributors included the Institute for Global Prosperity and the International Free Enterprise Association. Other contributors were the El Paso-Juârez Trolley Company, which donated Sunday's trolley service.

Other events will follow in the near future, including an artists' exhibit, said Cameron Scott, an artist at the press conference who said he plans to donate a painting of Ali to help raise funds for the project.

Barry, Ben-Joseph and Valadez said many more volunteers are needed to help carry out the relief efforts.

Over the years, the dump was settled by families who migrated to Juârez from the interior of Mexico to seek better opportunities. Many of them couldn't get jobs at maquiladoras or other places because they didn't possess documents to establish identities and education.

Countless survived by scavenging the garbage for food and trash for clothing and house materials. Some fashioned their homes from lumber scraps, sticks and cardboard.

Project leaders said families in the Colonia Morelos often can't afford to pay the $1 a week required to send their children to school.

For more information: Global Village Web site, www.gvmarket.com

Robert Selzer

El Paso Times

JUAREZ

The boy whupped « the Greatest. » It was the kind of emotional showdown that must happen everywhere Muhammad Ali goes.

Ali glared at the boy, clenching his fists and biting his lower lip in what appeared to be anger.

The boy glared back, short but defiant, his ribs poking through the holes in his dirty T-shirt.

Then, after about 10 seconds, Ali melted, lifting the boy and planting a kiss on his cheek so soft and sweet that it seemed to last forever.

"Es Muhammad Ali," Luis Carlos Hernandez, 7, yelled. "Es Muhammad All. Es el mas grande del mundo."

If Ali is the "greatest in the world," he no longer has to proclaim it himself; he lets the people do it for him.

Ali, the former three-time heavyweight champion, visited the border town Sunday afternoon, helping to deliver food and clothing to needy families in the Colonia Revolución.

"I'm only 30 years old, but I remember Ali's fights from my youth," said Juan Carlos Hernandez, who took his son, Luis, to see Ali. "He was a great fighter -- and a better man. And I wanted my son to see him."

Ali spent almost two hours at the Kiki Romero Gimnasio, where the food was delivered.

The boxing legend shadowboxed, signed autographs and kissed more children than a department store Santa Claus.

He proved that, even without his trunks, tassels and gloves, Ali will always be Ali, his personality as powerful as his fists once were.

"The food will help us so much," Soledad Gallardo, 25, said. "It means a lot to us to have a great man like him come down and help us."

About 300 people packed the gym, most of them children who were about knee-high to a spit bucket. Ali retired in 1981, but the youngsters still know of him. They know of the athlete and the humanitarian, and Sunday, they found out about the man whose brashness has been replaced by an impish smile.

"I brought my son," Gallardo said, cradling her 6-month-old boy, Julio Alberto. "One day, I want him to know that the great Muhammad Ali hugged him and kissed him."

Ali, 58, suffers from parkinsonism, a chronic condition of the nervous system. The sickness forces him to walk slowly and speak haltingly, as if he were considering every word, measuring it for its impact upon the listener. But, no, that is a preposterous notion because Ali never cared what the public thought of his comments -- the more controversial, the better.

"I want to present you with the key to the city," Mayor Carlos Ramirez told the former champion during a news conference earlier in the day at the Camino Real Hotel in El

Paso.

"Is this the key to the bank?" Ali asked softly.

The gathering broke out in laughter.

"He's a warm person, very caring and humorous," said Cameron Scott, 42, an El Paso artist, who met Ali that morning. "It's an exemplary person who retires from his chosen profession and then goes on to even greater work. There aren't many people like that. Ali is one of them."

Ali travels throughout the world to aid humanitarian causes, most of them involving children, said Yank Barry, chairman of the Global Village Market, which helped organize the donations to the needy families in Juárez.

"Ali is not getting a penny for this effort," Barry said at the news conference.

Ali, responding in mock terror, said, "You mean you're not paying me?"

Despite his medical condition, Ali seemed fit and trim, perhaps only 20 pounds above his prime fighting weight of 215. He shadowboxed combination at the air. The youngster screamed.