With the release of her highly anticipated sophomore album, These Cold And Rusted Lungs, singer songwriter Amy Courts has committed to donate 10% of all artist proceeds from the album to the African aid organization, The Mocha Club.
The donations will go towards the development the “Village of Hope” in Gulu, Uganda, which will provide a safe community with shelter, a job training center, a medical facility, and a school for 500 “child mothers” and their children. These young women are called “child mothers” because they were only children themselves when they were abducted, trained as fighters, and given as sex slaves to rebel soldiers in the LRA, a rebel paramilitary group in Northern Uganda.
“I believe the challenge to those with means is to aid those without,” says Courts, “not out of benevolence or sacrifice, or because it’s trendy to do so, but because it is our God-given responsibility as humans to care for those in need. As an artist with a voice and an audience, my personal responsibility widens from singing songs to inciting help for the fatherless, widow, and impoverished, lest my gift be wasted on vanity.”
Amy Courts’ new album, These Cold And Rusted Lungs, releases July 29th.
To learn more about the Village of Hope, visit the Mocha Club website. To learn more about Amy Courts, visit her website or MySpace page.