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This New Year’s Eve, show children in humanitarian crises you care.

Nine words that changed my life one Christmas

In December 1984, my life was all about me. Like some other 15-year-old girls, I monopolized our family phone. I wouldn’t leave home without make-up. Weekends were spent walking the mall with my friends, looking for cute shoes and earrings.

As I sauntered through my days, a cruel famine stalked the people of Ethiopia, claiming lives as it went. It became one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 20th century. Before the famine ended, some 1.2 million people would die.

Nothing about the tragedy penetrated for me, until a group of Britain’s best-loved singers flocked to London for a marathon recording session in November 1984. They called themselves Band Aid.

Twenty-four hours later, they’d cut the iconic Christmas charity song “Do they know it’s Christmas”. They released it worldwide in the weeks leading up to December 25, along with a music video. Radio stations played it every hour, so I heard it wherever I went.

The song that opened my heart

The song remained in top spot in U.K. charts for years and sparked millions of dollars in donations for Ethiopian relief. And it kicked down the door to my heart.

One line in particular sent chills of realization through my body and spilled hot tears of anger. Bono sang it from deep in his soul, as though crying into a dark universe about Ethiopia’s suffering.

“Well, tonight thank God it’s them, instead of you.”

Nine words that changed my life

In subsequent versions of the song, the line was softened to something gentler. But I’m glad I got to hear the 1984 version when I did. I needed to.

“Do they know it’s Christmas” helped change the course of my life — especially when paired with the footage from Ethiopia. I hadn’t known people could be that hungry and still be alive. I didn’t know there could be such heroism, as one dying person did what they could for another.

In the decades which passed, I was humbled again and again by a world of news stories more important than my own. I put aside dreams of acting and became a journalist with CBC television, working on international affairs programs.

Ten years later, I found my life’s calling through a job with World Vision, shining a light on the world’s people through stories and articles. The words of Band Aid’s song sparked a fire in my heart.

“Do They Know It’s Christmas” wasn’t meant to cause guilt. It was created to save lives. This New Year’s Eve, you can join the World Vision movement to do just that.

Give before midnight for a 2024 tax receipt

As we count down, crises are ramping up all over the world. Children are suffering through the anguish of armed conflict, natural disasters and food shortages — humanitarian emergencies they did nothing to cause.