Ed Sheeran confessed he didn’t want to be the stereotypical celebrity who travels to Africa for Comic Relief and cries on TV, but the reality of their circumstances struck him deeply.
On his trip to Liberia to raise money for Red Nose Day, the Shape Of You singer was ‘shocked’ and ‘appalled’ by the conditions he saw people living in.
He met numerous different children – saying how they were fascinated by his tattoos – but one girl, Peaches, made Ed cry with her song in memory of her dad who died in the Ebola crisis.
Documenting his trip, Ed wrote for the BBC:
There are hundreds of thousands of people crammed in to West Point, most of them living in squalor, so getting an education is a privilege and not something all of the kids get to do.
As we were taking a break from filming, a little girl came over to talk to me. Her name was Peaches and unlike the other children I’d met, she wasn’t in a uniform.
We had an impromptu jamming session and the girl could really sing. Peaches sang a song that reminded her of her father and as she did, tears started to roll down her face. The enthusiasm that was initially shining out of her disappeared.
Peaches explained how she had not attended school since her father died in the Ebola crisis as her mother could not afford to send her.
Ed encouraged the public to donate to Comic Relief as it only costs £45 to send Peaches to school for a year.
