Hello!

Hello! I’m Ezereve, a 29 year old mum of four and Perth based singer, and I'm passionate about making a difference through my music. It started at a jewellery party when I was 24 years old and I had three kids at the time. The jewellery had been made by women and girls who had been rescued from trafficking in Nepal. I didn’t even know what trafficking was! I learned it was the buying and selling of human beings for profit; basically modern day slavery. I was absolutely devastated by this and couldn’t go back to my everyday life, knowing that I was free and others just like me were not. It was all consuming. I thought maybe I could go to Nepal or India with my family and I could home school while my husband rescued the girls, or maybe I could go to university and study how to be a social worker, and even felt that maybe if I hadn’t had children that I would be more useful and be able to do more! I just felt so helpless.

I started writing songs about it because it was therapeutic. After wallowing in despair for quite a while, I decided I could sell my songs and raise money for the charity that rescued the girls and women from trafficking in Nepal. It was a Canadian based charity called Servant’s Anonymous Foundation. I bought some turquoise earrings from the jewellery party I had been to and they were a daily reminder to me of the girl in Nepal who made them and of my mission to help her.

I’m an all or nothing type person! So I gave it my all and recorded my songs at my friend’s home studio. Then I wondered how I would find money to duplicate the CD in order to sell it. So I did a bake sale at a local church and raised several thousand dollars. So many people helped me, like my friends at UC Photography and Kirsty Russell Design who took photos and designed the lyric booklet. I called the CD ‘Stop Traffik’, sang to anyone who would listen and sold CDs. Within four months of the CD launch $10,000 was raised for Servant’s Anonymous Foundation to help them save more girls and women from trafficking! It felt so good to be able to give and the good news is that I didn’t have to go to Nepal or have a university degree or be famous or be a millionaire. I just had to be myself, take action and use what I had in my hand. Raising $10,000 for charity isn’t something I did on my own- it was through the help of many others who made my vision a reality by supporting me, and I'm so grateful to each and every person who helped me! 'Stop Traffik' was far from perfect and there were people who told me that. But I didn't let it get to me. I wasn't trying to create something perfect anyway- I was trying to help rescue girls and women in Nepal.

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oooZJOaTZ3g[/embed]

This video is of me singing 'The Angry Woman Song' at the Ellington Jazz Club at the launch of 'Stop Traffik'.

Since then I’ve decided that using my music to make a difference is my purpose while I’m alive on this planet. It’s actually what I’m here for! The question most people ask me is ‘how do you do it?’ I must confess I wish they would ask me about my latest song! So I’m hoping I’ll answer that question and share ‘how I do it’ through this honest blog. Thank you for coming on this journey with me and I hope you’re inspired to live out your purpose, just as you are, with what you have in your hand; because you are enough.