Refugee All Stars Team Up With Ninemillion.org

The roots-folk-reggae fusion outfit Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars has joined forces with Ninemillion.org, a global partnership headed by the United Nations Refugee Agency, to publicize the plight of the world’s refugee children and to raise funds to support educational and recreational programs for those kids.

The All-Stars plan to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of their album, Living Like A Refugee, to the Ninemillion.org fund. The album includes an insert featuring information about refugee children and the efforts of Ninemillion.org and its partners Nike and Microsoft/MSN to reduce their suffering. MSN Music plans to feature downloadable tracks from Living Like A Refugee along with other information about the band and the Ninemillion.org program.

The band also encourages people to visit Ninemillion.org and make a personal donation to the cause.

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have a personal connection to the efforts of Ninemillion.org. The band was “discovered” at Guinean refugee camp in 2002 by filmmakers Zach Niles and Banker White and producer/musician Chris Velan, who later documented their journey from the refugee camp to the recording studio.

As a refugee, frontman Reuben M. Koroma worked as a teacher to the children at his camp, an experience that convinced him of the importance of providing “normal” opportunities for the displaced residents of the camps.

"In the refugee camps we found the most traumatized youth-- those who had lost family, had been maimed, or had been taken as child combatants-- and we focused on helping them," Komora said in a statement. "In addition to music and theater, we had the greatest success in helping them achieve a sense of normalcy through sports and basic schooling. We sincerely hope that ninemillion.org can expand on these efforts to reach the millions of youth still in need."

Living Like A Refugee was released in September 2006. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, the Niles, White, and Velan-produced documentary about the band’s rise from refugees to veritable rock stars, is one of the most praised films of 2006.

For more information, check out SierraLeoneRefugeeAllStars.com or Ninemillion.org.

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