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Changing the World
Norman joined a cast of celebrities,
including Alicia Keys, David
Bowie, Damien Marley, Angelique Kidjo, and so many more at the
third-annual Black Ball. The goal? Help Keys turn this annual
event into a million-dollar fundraiser to help AIDS orphans in Africa.
The event was a great success.
Interspersed between the performances were
film clips of the Keys' recent trip to Africa, where she visited clinics
in Durban, South Africa, and Kampala, Uganda.
Said
Keys in an MTV interview, "you go and you experience it, and you really
feel what’s happening and what we’re doing, how you help by just being
there. You feel a connection to it.”
Keys added, “musically, it’s the
bringing together of a whole world of people that you will probably
never see on the same stage ever again.”
Keys is trying to bridge worlds in more ways than one. Like
Bono, Jay-Z and Madonna, she’s on a mission to raise awareness about
what’s happening in Africa, particularly with the 12 million orphans
left by the AIDS pandemic. The money raised by this fundraiser “goes
directly to the people,” Keys assured, to provide anti-retroviral
medicine, staff clinics, and to build orphanages.
One
of the Black Ball honorees, Carol Dyantyl, who Keys calls “Mama
Carol,” looks after 900 children in an orphanage in Soweto, South
Africa, called Ikageng Ministries. “There’s a huge orphan problem,” Keys
said. “It’s a reaction to what happens when you can’t get the medicine
to everyone. Families pass away."
Moved by one particular child’s story, Keys has written a new song in
his honor. Sudi, whose family lives in the slums of Mombasa, Kenya, was
17-years-old and infected with HIV but didn’t receive any medication
until he was 14. His growth was so stunted, he looked 9-years-old because he was less than four feet tall.
Alicia is not ready to share the song just yet
— she feels like it’s too close to her heart at the moment — but she did
share her time with Sudi via footage she aired on “The Oprah Winfrey
Show.” In response, Oprah’s Angel Network raised $250,000, and Key’s fan
club raised $4,000.
Click photos to enlarge:
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Norman with Alicia Keys |
Erika
Rose,
Alicia Keys,
and Dawn DeBlaze |
Norman and
Angelique Kidjo |
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Norman with
Kerry "Krucial" Brothers |
Kerry, Alicia, and Norman |
Norman and his wife,
Michelline |
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Norman, Omas, and
Erika Rose |
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