Kiwi-born artist Ant Utama, a former resident of Cockle bay who now lives in Germany has just released a song in partnership with Lifeline Aotearoa.
It is aptly called ‘I Got Your Back’ and is inspired by the unfortunate suicide statistics in New Zealand. 685 people passed away in the 12 months prior to June 30th 2019. Males are among those at the highest risk with 72 per cent or 498 deaths this past year.
The song’s message is to encourage people to be more open and look at each other more closely and 100 per cent of the proceeds from the song are going to Lifeline.
“After moving to Germany 12 months ago, I was surprised to see how appalled Europeans were when they heard about these statistics. They imagine a green Lord of the Rings-esque landscape and an entire population that is high on life. This is sadly not the case for many people,” says Ant.
Hundred per cent of the proceeds from ‘I Got Your Back’ will go towards Lifeline in an effort to help them continue their mission to reduce distress, save lives and build more resilient and caring communities, schools and workplaces.
Currently, Lifeline supports more than 10,000 callers and 12,000 texters each month – figures that continue to grow exponentially.
With phones needing to be manned 24/7 by qualified counsellors and trained volunteers, this service comes at a cost and without government funding, Lifeline relies heavily on public donations to be able to continue to provide this necessary service.
Lifeline’s Community Fundraiser, Chloe Skeggs says, “For a musician like Ant to use his creativity and talent to ensure people in New Zealand continue to access life-changing support is incredible. Ant receives $0.006 per stream of the song on Spotify which means if every Kiwi streams the song, he would reach a donation total of $30,000.”
