Born in the capital city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mutombo is the seventh of ten children born to Samuel and the late Biamba Marie Mutombo. He arrived in the United States in 1987 on an academic scholarshi p to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. As a pre-med major, his dream was to become a medical doctor and return to the Congo to practice medicine.
In his second year at Georgetown, Coach John Thompson invited the 7'2" Mutombo to try out for the university's renowned basketball team. After joining the team, Mutombo re-directed his academic ambitions and graduated from Georgetown with dual degrees in Linguistics and Diplomacy.

A well-known humanitarian, Mutombo started the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation to improve living conditions in his native Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1997. His efforts earned him the NBA's humanitarian award in 2001.
great Dikembe Mutombo's decision to add two centers to his recently opened Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

he donated $19 million of his own money to fund the Kinshasa facility named for his late mother. “This hospital was such a dream and today it is becoming a reality and so important to so many people,” the 42-year-old Congo native said. “We think that Congolese people deserve better health care and we hope that what we are doing here is setting an example so that people can have hope.”

According to Athlebrities.com, the two centers, an Immune System Monitoring Laboratory and an Occupational Safety Center for Health Workers, will train more than 300 clinicians and improve monitoring and treatment of patients living with HIV/AIDS.
"The doctors and nurses at the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital are saving lives every day and helping improve health care in the DRC, which has been ravaged by more than a decade of war and disease," Mutombo said at the opening ceremony. "These centers of excellence are an important milestone in improving the quality of life for those who live with HIV/AIDS and in training new health care workers to help prevent the spread of disease.

Honored with USA Weekend Magazine's "Most Caring Athlete Award," and from FOXSports.com as the most generous athlete in the world, NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo of the Houston Rockets has long been dedicated to improving the health, education and quality of life for the people in his birthplace, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Created in Atlanta, Georgia 1997, the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation is attempting to eradicate many childhood diseases that have virtually disappeared in developed countries while those diseases are still life threatening to children in the Congo everyday.