Songs For South Sudan will be held on Sunday April 6 at the Northcote Social Club (2pm – 4.30pm) to raise money for the community of Bor on the White Nile River.
Singer Ajak Kwai put things in motion after hearing personal accounts from family members. “I know so many people who are suffering,” he said. “It is estimated over 2,000 in my region alone and 5,000 across South Sudan have been killed since December 2013. As citizens of the world we are responsible for one another. I want to reach out to Australian people to join me in supporting this cause.”
Performing are Senegalese kora player and prolific songwriter Jali Buba Kuyateh, fast rising indigenous comedian Kevin Kropinyeri, the 80-voice Melbourne Mass Gospel Choir whose repertoire will focus on songs of freedom including those from the US civil rights movement, and South Sudanese singer and refugee Ajak Kwai who sings in Arabic, Sudanese and English.
Many people massacred on the streets have not been buried. There are great concerns including the risk of disease particularly as the rainy season approaches in April. Funds will assist in the re-establishment of Bor, payments for supplies at the local hospital and education fees for South Sudanese school children living in Uganda.
