Song of hope for Africa

– Callan Date
CASEY residents were touched last week by a moving and colourful song-and-dance performance from a group of African orphans.
The Watoto Children’s Choir produced several unforgettable shows at both the Berwick Church of Christ and Westfield Fountain Gate to help raise more than $50,000 in donations.
About 5000 people saw the lively entertainment over the three-day tour with all money raised going towards the construction of a classroom for the Watoto Child Care Ministries in Uganda.
Each performer, who has lost either one or both parents to the AIDS epidemic or civil war, brought joy and hope to the audience through their touching tribal songs.
Berwick Church of Christ senior pastor Barry Cutchie described the Casey tour as a huge success.
“At the main concert on Friday night we had more than 1000 people and then on Sunday morning we had about 1100 people to what is normally our Sunday service,” he said.
“We were really pleased with the whole event.”
Mr Cutchie said Casey mayor Colin Butler officially welcomed the choir to the city before the Friday night performance.
“The money is going to what we are calling the Casey City classroom. We have a team that is going to go over in January 2008 to help build it,” he said.
Mr Cutchie said the choir’s organising committee was forever thankful to the people who supported the event.
“We are so appreciative of the generosity of the people of Casey,” he said.
“It’s not just the people from the church who are getting involved. We are finding more and more people from the wider community are coming along.”