One of the top trending news stories at this hour is about the ongoing refugee crisis. With hundreds of thousands of refugees desperately seeking humanitarian assistance, particularly across the Middle East and Europe, there are many people who are wondering what they can do to help in even a small way.
Realizing the urgency of the matter, Imagine Dragons, the Grammy Award-winning American rock band based out of Las Vegas, Nevada, has teamed up with the German Software company SAP SE to introduce the One4 Project to support refugee relief efforts. In a recent article written by Dan Reynolds, the lead singer of the group, he commented:
I am convinced that if we as a world make a collective decision that this refugee crisis is indeed a crisis worth fixing, we can absolutely do it. If the power of one can be so strong, how strong can the power of millions of Ones be?
Germany and many other countries are bearing a large load right now. A load too great for anyone to handle alone. We need to help. We cannot stand by and watch these families’ lives be turned upside down. These children need homes. These parents are willing to work and do whatever it takes to contribute to the economy of the country that gives them a home. Yes, some will be migrants looking for a better place to live (around 10% of the refugees), but the vast majority are just looking to survive. They are looking to protect their children from a premature death.
The goal of the project is to get as many people as possible involved with supporting the relief efforts by going to iTunes to purchase the new released single by Imagine Dragons called “I Was Me.” Both Imagine Dragons and Apple have confirmed that all proceeds from the sales of the song will go to the UN Refugee Agency as it addresses the refugee displacement crisis occurring in Europe.
SAP, the main supporter of the One4 Project, has also announced that it will donate 10 cents for each of the first five million purchases of the new single. It is the hopes of those participating in the project that not only will funds be raised to support the relief efforts, but also that international attention will become focused on this important issue.
Imagine Dragons performed the song “I Was Me” publicly for the first time on 12 October 2015, live on stage at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany, as part of their Smoke + Mirror tour which also included stops in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, and Stuttgart, Germany, and then on to Scandinavia, France, and the United Kingdom. The song is about trying to regain your life which is what they believe is the current plight of the refugees.
The band realizes that one person cannot tackle this issue alone, but rather it takes many people united together for a common cause. In their own words, “[The One4 Project] symbolizes the power that people – one by one—have when they collectively focus on an issue that is bigger than any one company, organization, or country can address on its own. Just one selfless gesture represents one for hope, one for a new beginning, one for peace.”
Supporters of the project can also join the social media campaign by sharing photos using the hashtag #one4 and posting them on the One4 Project pages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. More information can be obtained by visiting the One4 Project page via SAP.
