Loading ...UN International Peace Day finds 5yr old Shymaa and other Gaza children calling for world peace
Press release: The National Center for Community Rehabilitation (NCCR)
The National Center for Community Rehabilitation’s (NCCR) children’s choir in Gaza wins the Global Peace Song Award Music Video category. During the military invasion of Gaza during the summer of 2014 one of many stories stood out for Steve Robertson, Founder and CEO of Project Peace on Earth (PPoE) who has worked with the UN in the Palestinian Middle East region since 2009.
Robertson watched TV news coverage by Sky News reporter Tom Rayner. According to Robertson who recounted the experience, “The reporter stated that doctors weren’t sure a little Gaza girl would survive, but he said if she did regain consciousness, she would learn that her mother, father and sister – her entire family – had all been killed… My tears wouldn’t stop and I said to myself: That’s enough. I have to do something now, to offer some sort of healing support to the people of Gaza. I started making calls and sending emails out to our PPoE Musical Ambassadors to put together a benefit album. I was flooded with music.”
After delivering the initial album in November of 2015 Robertson set out on a seven-month search to see if the little girl, Shymaa, had survived and to find her. Finally, through reaching out to the Gaza based National Centre of Community Rehabilitation (NCCR) he did find her. The NCCR organization specializes in supporting and empowering children to have a normal childhood after being injured and/or traumatized during military invasions. Robertson had an idea to produce a song and video with children from the NCCR and Shymaa so he immediately reached out to composer Richard Gannaway, a PPoE Music Ambassador.
Together, Robertson, Gannaway and the NCCR team worked for some three months to train children with no singing experience (the NCCR Gaza Children’s Choir) and then record and film them for the album. Shymaa is featured in the Haumea music video which was beautifully edited by the esteemed musician and filmmaker, Fritz Heede. 2014 Grammy winner Ricky Kej (Best New Age album), generously donated his time to produce the overall album.
Learning of Shymaa’s story and the newly proposed volume II of the 2 Unite All album, Philip Lawrence (of Bruno Mars, 2015 Grammy Winner) wrote and delivered the beautiful song “Begin Again.” Shortly thereafter, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd was also moved by Shymaa’s story and wanted to help. In donating his song “Each Small Candle” and supporting the cause Waters stated: “The story of the little girl Shymaa in Gaza who lost her entire family, sparked the idea for the 2 Unite All benefit album for Gaza, Palestine and Middle East Peace. It is a story that is far too familiar. In Gaza 1.6 million people, adults and children alike live in what is essentially an open-air prison. They have no control over their borders, airspace or coastal waters. They live under the constant threat of attack from their heavily armed and hostile neighbor Israel. There is a movement in Global Civil Society to protest their intolerable situation, a movement which I wholeheartedly support. I have given my song “Each Small Candle” in support of the important Project Peace On Earth album in the hope that, along with all the other songs donated by concerned artists, it will help to shed light on the plight of the Palestinian people, and encourage progress towards equal rights, justice and freedom for all the peoples of this Middle Eastern region regardless of ethnicity or religion.”
Haumea, the Global Peace Song Award’s winning music video by the NCCR, Richard Gannaway and PPoE is featured amongst the 30 songs of the 2 Unite All album (Volumes 1 & 2), which includes such music legends as Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Philip Lawrence of Bruno Mars, Thomas Bergersen (2 Billion YouTube hits), Sasha Cooke (Grammy Winner), Gary Nicholson (Grammy Winner), Beth Nielsen Chapman, Rick Allen (Def Leppard), Ricky Kej and Wouter Kellerman (Grammy Winners) and more.
The aim of Haumea video is to show the untold story and true spirit of love that guides the children of Gaza and people of Palestinian. The Haumea video also serves as a promotional beacon for the NCCR’s new worldwide campaign movement of “Love All Love Wins” and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Beneficiaries of the 2 Unite All album include: Palestine Children Relief Fund, Friends of UNRWA USA, National Centre for Community Rehabilitation (NCCR) in Gaza and PPoE.
The 2 Unite All project has earned supporting quotes from such luminary thinkers as Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone, Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun, Sam Bahour and many more.
Mr. Khaled Abuzaid, NCCR founder stated that: “We decided to participate in the 2 Unite All album and Love All Love Wins Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) campaigns because we believe that the children of Gaza and Palestine deserve the same rights of a peaceful co-existence that most all children who live in the US, Britain and around the world presently experience. It is our prayer, through music, that our children can share their voice with the world. We believe that Palestine will one day be a world center for peace and reconciliation.”
YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/evvkgqqcbQs