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Celebrating Justice with Music
Ben Okafor will be leading a special evening of music and celebration in support of the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers on Friday 22nd April at Bishop Perowne School, Worcester starting at 7.30pm. The evening is being sponsored by the Diocesan Board of Education and forms the first of a number of events to highlight the particular needs of children and young people around the world. Ben Okafor is a well-known singer/songwriter who now lives in Malvern.
Ben can speak from personal experience of child soldiers. He grew up in Biafra and remembers how his family became refugees during the Biafran war moving from place to place to escape the Nigerian troops. Ben volunteered to join the soldiers but on the day he was due to be taken on, the course of the war changed and the Biafran army stopped using children. Today he argues passionately against using any children in war or preparing them for military conflict and is offering his music to highlight the issue.
The event on 22nd April will include some of Ben's latest songs. He will be joined by children from Jessons School from Dudley and Bishop Perowne School in Worcester, actors and other musicians for an evening of theatre and music. The coalition will also give a short presentation on their work. School heads and college principals will be invited to the evening in the hope of encouraging similar events elsewhere.
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers works to prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers, to secure their demobilisation and rehabilitation. In 1998 it was estimated that 300,000 children were involved in armed conflict and it is estimated that a third of these are in Africa. Ben maintains that local people can be a major influence for change in society and therefore he is focusing on working with people in the local area to highlight this issue and working with a number of local schools.
Tickets for the event are £10 (£7 concessions) and available from Huntingdon Arts on 01905 611427.
ends
The Diocese of Worcester is one of 44 dioceses in the Church of England. It covers an area of 671 square miles and includes parishes in the County of Worcestershire, the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, and a few parishes in northern Gloucestershire, south east Wolverhampton and Sandwell.
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