The song “Ebola is Real” blended sounds of Hip Co (the Liberian take on hip-hop), with local advice (“When your monkey want play, don’t play with him,”) and specifics of the disease (“The only way you can get Ebola is to get in direct contact with the blood, saliva, urine…”). UNICEF produced the “Ebola is Real” song, composed by Adolphus Scott, a Liberian communications specialist for UNICEF, in partnership with Liberia’s Ministry of Health & Social Welfare and Liberian artists F.A., Soul Fresh, and DenG. The song has appeared daily on Liberian TV and 20 radio stations in West Africa since August.
Source: UNICEF, SoundCloud
On Oct. 3, several local African and African American organizations including one that brings ancestors of slaves to West Africa to discover their roots, pulled together a cadre of Washington D.C./African bands to earn some money for the frontlines of the Ebola crisis. Headlining with the Grammy-nominated Malian Cheick Hamala Diabate and Cameroonian singer and rapper Naomi Achu, the Concert for Ebola Relief filled Silver Spring, Maryland’s Fillmore Theater with flags from around the world and earned a citation from Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley for its efforts.
Source: Concert for Ebola Relief
Inspired by the 2012 Concert for Sandy Relief in New York, comedian Jena Friedman said it only seemed right that celebrities do something to combat the toll Ebola had been taking on West African countries. “So many people in the media (are) focusing on how it’s affecting us,” she told Newsweek. In two months, Friedman pulled in talent including Jeanne Garofalo and Fred Armisen to host the Benefit for West African Relief, which featured more comedians than musicians. Regina Spektor and Ted Leo helped fill the 1,025-seat Irving Plaza with tickets starting at $60.
Source: The Huffington Post
On Nov. 14, Pape Diouf, “king of Senegalese Mbalax” and a cultural ambassador for Africare, launched the NGO’s Stop Ebola Campaign at the Grand National Theatre in Dakar, Senegal. Though the disease has not affected the West African country, Africare addresses Africa’s problems by partnering with its people. It pledged to use an undisclosed amount raised for community-based Ebola prevention in Senegal and Guinea. It was the first major Ebola-focused event on the continent.
Source: Africare
Bob Geldof’s British charity organization Band Aid 30 (originally known as Band Aid) released on Nov. 17 a Ebola-themed remake of the charity song, “Do They Know Its Christmas?” Originally released in 1984 to fight famine in Ethiopia, the song raised more than $1.5 million within minutes of airing in 2014 and rose to No. 1 on the U.K. charts in November. Then Band Aid fell under scrutiny for not sourcing its aid recipients and Geldof was criticized for insensitivity to the large Muslim population in West Africa and for white patriarchalism.
Source: The Guardian
Within a week or so of the “Do They Know It’s Christmas” release, a group of some of West Africa’s most famous musicians including the internationally acclaimed duo Amadou & Mariam, released on Nov.28 the song “Africa Stop Ebola.” A seven-language public service announcement, it was set to pop and reggae beats with lyrics such such as “you cannot kiss someone,” “wash your hands, and “avoid shaking hands of others.” The song, which some pundits say deliberately countered Bob Geldof and Band Aid 30, gave advice on ways to prevent the virus without stereotyping Africa. It raised money for Médecins Sans Frontières and was available for purchase on iTunes or Amazon. “It can’t always be Europeans coming to the aid of Africans,” Congolese vocalist Barbara Kanan told National Public Radio in early December.
Source: The Guardian
Stuck in the U.S. due to the Ebola after finishing a six-month tour, the Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars – a musical group that is no stranger to loss and hardship – decided to make the best of a bad situation. Formed by a group of refugees displaced to Guinea during the Sierra Leone Civil War, the group settled in with a Sierra Leonean community in Providence, Rhode Island, then hit the road again, this time, to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. They also had a few shows interspersed to earn money for their own families back home. “When we’re playing, we help our own people and we help heal up our stress,” said lead guitarist Ashade Pearce. The All-Stars performed at a small church in Brooklyn, New York on Dec. 20 after the organizers another concert left them off the ticket due to transportation costs.
Source: AFKInsider
Dozens of runners representing several charities raised money while traversing the five boroughs during the Nov. 2 New York City Marathon. The 69 runners on Team UNICEF brought in $215,000 in donations through the website Crowdrise and earmarked 100 percent to help contain the Ebola outbreak and support affected children and families in West Africa. AmeriCares contributed 15 runners, including the company’s president and CEO, Michael Nyenhuis (pictured above), and $130,000 to the Ebola relief. AmeriCares has responded to Ebola emergency efforts in the past but “this is an entirely different scale that requires an entirely different response, Nyenhuis told USA Today.
Source: USA Today
Plenty of drivers in Los Angeles bought these Café Press stickers, which feature the famous Obama “O” in the word “Ebola,” for the U.S. president’s visit to Los Angeles in October for a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at actor Gwynth Paltrow’s home. “I want to assure everybody that the likelihood of any epidemic here in the U.S. is extraordinarily small, but there’s a humanitarian crisis that’s happening right now in West Africa where children not much older…than Apple and Moses are dying on the streets alone,” he told the crowd. Paltrow played the lead in “Contagion,” a 2011 movie about an incurable virus that killed thousands of U.S. citizens.
Source: Los Angeles Times
A U.N. fund seeking nearly $1 billion for financing to fight Ebola in West Africa received just $100,000 in October 2014. The Ebola Survival Fund, set up by Paul Farmer and a host of NGOs, attempted to boost the effort with #CrushEbolaNow, proposing a bi-coastal telethon with live music to raise funds and awareness in support of the Ebola intervention. The #CrushEbolaNow concert organizers looked for TV networks to offer a two-hour block of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2014 and the necessary on-air promotion leading up to the concert. They never received it.
Source: Ebola Survival Fund
