Tens of thousands of children in Monrovia have been living in dire situations and, tragically, the Ebola outbreak only made matters worse. Thousands of children lost parents and relatives to the killer virus and the Liberian economy was shattered. This forced more children onto the streets to live or look for work to supplement diminished family incomes. Today, more than 14,000 children are living and working on Monrovia’s dangerous streets – some of them as young as seven.
Ed Sheeran made a special trip to Africa last year, and Red Nose Day is giving us an inside look to what happened during his visit.
The GRAMMY award-winning singer traveled to Liberia with Comic Relief, the non-profit behind Red Nose Day, for a moving experience to support the charity event.
Set to Sheeran’s “What Do I Know,” a track from his latest album Divide, the video shows Ed spending a few days in West Point. West Point is the largest and most dangerous slum in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. He visited projects that use funds raised through Red Nose Day to support disadvantaged children in the township, where an estimated 75,000 people in the city live without clean water or access to sanitation.
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Describing the trip, Ed said, “Nothing can prepare you for what you’ll see visiting a place like Monrovia. There are so many kids in such desperate situations – but there is also hope. For those who watch my videos for Red Nose Day, I hope that you are moved as much as I was, and contribute to this incredibly important cause. Now, more ever, I believe that together we can save and change millions of children’s lives in the US and around the world.â€
Did you know that Ed’s trip has already helped to drive awareness around the issues children in Liberia are facing? The singer-songwriter will also appear in two further films about two of the children he met on his trip, Peaches and JD. This new video, created exclusively for Red Nose Day in America, aims to raise further awareness of the situation and drive donations to support the work that Red Nose Day helps to fund in communities like Monrovia.Â
The Red Nose Day campaign to end child poverty returns to the U.S. on Thursday, May 25th, in conjunction with a night of special programming and the third annual Red Nose Day Special on NBC. You can join Ed’s fundraising efforts by visiting rednoseday.org/ed.