Elaine Mai, MayKay and Faye O’Rourke release music video for charity single

Irish artists Elaine Mai, MayKay and Faye O’Rourke have released the music video for the single ‘We Are’, written and recorded in collaboration with a number of young Palestinian refugees who are currently living in the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine.

The money generated by the video, which was made by the Derry-based agency Aileach Digital, will be donated to the Lajee Centre in Palestine.

A campaign associated with the single release has also been launched. It allows people to make donations directly to the Lajee Centre, whose mission is to provide refugee youth and women with cultural, educational, social and developmental opportunities.

Watch the music video for ‘We Are’ below:

The collaboration, which was originally released in April, features Palestinian refugees Rand Salah Ajarma (age 17), Rawand Salah Ajarma (11), Reem Mohammad Ikhlayel (15), Sara Anan Ghabbash (15), Omar Naser Al-Azraq (17) Ahmad Iyad Abu Yabes (17) and Qusai Mohammad Al Khawaja (12).

MayKay, who has spent time volunteering with the Lajee Center and worked on the recording on-the-ground at the Aida Refugee Camp, says: “I’ve spent some time in the amazing Lajee Center in Aida Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine. Despite the best efforts of the occupation forces to suppress, depress and break the spirits of the young people in the camp, they are made of resilience, joy, steeliness and humour.

“Working with this group of young people was the honour of a lifetime,” she continues. “When Elaine sent me some tracks to listen to from her new record it felt like a great opportunity to have their voices, their language, their strength, their joy and their power on a record being released in Ireland, that will hopefully echo throughout the forests and fields of festivals and clubs for years to come and remind us all what’s important in this world.

Mai adds: “Despite the relentless efforts of the occupation forces to silence and demoralise them, the voices of the children heard on 'We Are' are full of joy, resilience, and undeniable power. Every stream and purchase of the track goes directly to the Lajee Center, where these children live in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. Saoirse don Phalaistín.”