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Before the earthquake in Haiti made the country’s failing infrastructure the topic of conversation, children of all ages were spending their nights on the street corners of Port-au-Prince. When the massive January natural disaster leveled buildings and put three million people in need of emergency aid, those same kids, who had no home, were largely unaffected.
Many Haitian youths still spend their days out of school and their nights out of shelter.
“It has been down there since 1999 — Michael Brewer, the guy who runs [Haitian Street Kids] has been down there. Then, January 12 or so they got their earthquake. Now, everyone and their cousin has a fundraiser for Haiti,” Robert Holcomb said. “The earthquake didn’t have much affect on street kids ’cause they have no home.”
Holcomb, who runs his pottery studio out of Eighth and Morris streets, had been planning a fundraising trip to Port-au-Prince in July 2009 to benefit Haitian Street Kids, Inc., (HSK) which staffs volunteers to offer advice, counseling, hope and first aid to the estimated 400,000 abandoned and abused children there. Though the earthquake has brought a much-needed spotlight on the situation in Haiti, unfortunately, Holcomb feels it has detracted from the persistent mistreating of the country’s youths.
“One morning I saw two kids, 15 or 16, these kids, they took apart the generator [that kept breaking down] and put it back together again and had it working, without any education,” Holcomb, 39, said. “I just thought that was really something.
“If they had the opportunity, they would really succeed.”
Making his long-awaited trip to a post-earthquake Port-au-Prince in March, Holcomb spent time meeting the kids Brewer works with on a daily basis. With clay in hand, the lifetime potter encouraged local children to construct pieces that he brought back to his South Philadelphia studio and incorporated into a bowl. Holcomb is selling the original art to raise funds directly for HSK.
“Michael doesn’t have a home for these kids, now, he gives them money so they can eat,” Holcomb said of the hardships facing HSK. “It’s one of those things, the relief effort, the people have given so much but you want some sustainable health — if you give someone a bag of rice it is a good thing, but it’s not really addressing the issue.”
To help get the funds that will make the changes needed, Holcomb also has followed through on his original plan, which was to raffle off a 26-inch flat-screen TV to someone who donates at least $20 to HSK.
“They are going to draw the name May 15 and contact the winner via e-mail or phone, whichever they provided, and I will post it on my YouTube page that week,” Holcomb, who created a video during his visit to Haiti that he posted on the video-sharing site, said. “A friend even mentioned to me that there may be laws to do raffles.
“But I need someone to get upset with me and bring attention to this story, you know, ‘Man gives away 26-inch TV, spends six months in jail.’”
At 11:44 a.m., on Feb. 22, 2002, , Holcomb met who he now calls his “little brother.” The youngest of eight children, Holcomb started working the Big Brothers Big Sisters campaign and added, as far as he is concerned, the ninth sibling to his genetic line.
“That’s the toughest thing, I haven’t told my little bro yet,” Holcomb, who is leaving the area June 27, said. “But I will be back a minimum of twice a year. In the short term, it’s a sacrifice, but in the long term, it will give us more freedom.”
Born outside Godfrey, Ill., Holcomb attended South Illinois University Edwardsville, where he is planning to return for further education this summer. His initial round of liberal arts education was, by his own direction, not all that liberal.
“We had great programs in school all my life. In 1987, I made the commitment that I was going to work with clay for the rest of my life,” Holcomb, a high-schooler at the time, said. “In the first semester of [college] I dropped all my other courses to do pottery.”
After trying to earn a living in the arts throughout Europe, Holcomb returned to the States and found himself in Philly.
“Philadelphia is an affordable city. I could be here part-time; I could work part-time and still live,” Holcomb, who eventually settled in West Philly, said. “Philadelphia kept me around ’cause it’s so darn affordable. And it’s a good sports town.”
Working out of a studio on Spring Garden Street for a decade, a fellow artist convinced the potter to make the move to South Philly last year.
“Jerry Bennett, he was getting ready to move out and was moving to South Philly because it was cheaper,” Holcomb said of the East Passyunk space that used to be the Philadelphia Pottery Supply he now shares with a handful of artists. “It worked out great. It’s much better, one of the nicest places I’ve been.
“The thing that makes a working environment good is the people you’re around. [Bennett,] only lets people in who have a good attitude, who are fun to be with. We always have a bottle of wine or chocolate. He only has people he considers a friend.”
While toiling to make it as a full-time artist, Holcomb has spread his time across multiple part-time gigs that include being a standardized patient for students seeking to pass a residency test and a “rent-a-waiter.” However, his charity work is always the highlight of his days.
“In 1996 I was at Children’s Hospital and I was a waiter for the day. I saw a little kid walking with an IV pole and I started making faces at him. He kept waiting for me to make faces. I grabbed a volunteer application and by the time I turned it in they said it was outdated and I had to get a new one, but I’m thankful for having that job at Children’s that day,” Holcomb, who has held a decade-long position as a volunteer at the hospital, said.
Working for many charities, Holcomb’s service focuses on children and he plans to adopt “a truckload” one day. In the same vein, he is leaving Philadelphia to return to SIUE to earn a degree in early education and possibly special education.
“I’ll be coming back to South Philly to that studio space and doing some pottery with my friends,” Holcomb said of future plans. “And to the Super King Buffet, my favorite place in the whole — OK, get this, it’s at Front and Snyder … you can go up and have eight plates of food and, with tax, it only cots $6.41.”
Holcomb plans to continue working with HSK and hopes that someone will get wind of the situation and make a donation large enough to enable it to continue its work.
For more information on Haitian Street Kids Inc., go to hski.org or to enter the raffle, send a 3×5 index card with your name, contact information and a check made out to Haitian Street Kids Inc. for at least $20 to: Haitian Street Kids, Inc., 5209 Rain Forest Drive, McKinney, Texas, USA, 75070.
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