PAOLO NUTINI Helps Out (Where He Can) With The Congo Crisis & UNHCR's “Gimme Shelter” Campaign
With fighting raging on in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and seemingly no end in sight for the 250,000 Congolese people forced from their homes because of the violence, actor-director Ben Affleck, Sir Mick Jagger and Paolo Nutini have released a short film to help raise US $23 million for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) during 2009 to help pay for clean water and emergency humanitarian assistance kits in the region.

The film – “Gimme Shelter” – was directed by Affleck and filmed by John Toll, both Academy Award winners. The footage in November 2008 in the strife-torn North Kivu region of the DRC, where thousands have fled their homes since fighting resumed in August. The film is set to the Rolling Stones’ song Gimme Shelter, which Jagger and the group donated to the campaign and Ben Affleck and Mick Jagger approached Paolo to do a version of the song for an alternative version of the film.

We made this film in order to focus attention on the humanitarian crisis in the DRC at a time when too much of the world is indifferent or looking the other way,” said Ben Affleck, who launched the film at a special briefing with UNHCR at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday, 17 December 2008. “The suffering and loss we’ve all seen first-hand is staggering – it is beyond belief.”

”Gimme Shelter” captures the unseen suffering of Congolese families who fled the fighting with next to nothing and are now forced to find refuge in makeshift huts with little to live on. Some 30,000 others have fled to neighbouring Uganda and are receiving help from UNHCR.

There are currently 1.3 million displaced people in the DRC, many of them earlier victims caught up in an ongoing cycle of violence. The effects of the conflict have claimed as many as 5.4 million lives in the last 10 years, with an estimated 1,000 people still dying every day. In some areas, two out of three women have been raped. Abductions persist in all brutal forms and children are forcefully recruited to fight. Outbreaks of cholera and other diseases have increased as the humanitarian situation deteriorates.

Faced with an overwhelming need, “Gimme Shelter” hopes to raise US $23 million in 2009 to pay for emergency humanitarian assistance kits that contain jerry cans, kitchen sets, thermal blankets, sleeping mats, mosquito nets and plastic sheeting needed for construction of shelters.

Ben Affleck, who has made four visits to central Africa since 2007, urged more public awareness of this and other conflicts in which millions of people have been forced from their homes.

“I’m urging people not to look the other way, not to turn off their TV when news of the violence in the DRC comes on. We all need to stand up and support the work of organizations like UNHCR who are on the ground offering protection and working hard to ensure the rights and well-being of refugees,” he said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres thanked Jagger, Affleck and other “Gimme Shelter” supporters like Paolo Nutini & The Vipers for their efforts.

UNHCR is also inviting people to visit the www.unhcr.org web site to post a personal message or voice their support online in an effort to raise public awareness about the crisis in DRC ... and of course, you can click and donate much needed cash - that would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance from Paolo, The Vipers and all at www.paolonutini.com
Watch it here and a shorter version on Youtube

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52090349

only 20 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5zz5SdOAas