Healing through my music

Since birth, music has been a part of my life, and I am very thankful to be blessed with the gift of what I have been told, a "healing singing voice".

I remember my speech in high school, before our graduation, I said "1o years from now, I see myself as a famous singer, touring the world and earning more than enough money to save the world from poverty and healing the world with my music".

As I have always felt joy in sharing my music with people, I decided to do charity shows and felt so wonderful after knowing how much it had helped those in need through my music.

When the pandemic hit, all my shows were cancelled, it was very upsetting for me indeed, so when I was offered to sing on an online show, I accepted straight away, and I then started performing on multiple online shows, one of my shows is a Sunday special, where I sing gospels and inspiration tunes. It was very touching reading comments like, "I feel wonderful after watching your show" or "I was so upset, but when I watched your show and felt so much better, listening to your singing" or "you sing like an angel" or " I feel like I am in a cathedral" and plenty more...

I decided to create my own Facebook music page and also created a chatline where all my supporters gather, make friends and share each day's experiences. At first, the group chat was named "April Marie Fans", however, as we all got closer, I changed it to "April Marie Musical Family", which all my supporters appreciated.

It was an absolute joy, reading comments within that group chat about how the group has given them a global family that they feel connected with, a place where they can go to chat and release their tensions, stresses and sadness, a place where they can share their joys and frustrations, but one that touched my heart had said that, April Marie Musical Family (AMF) saved her from ending her life, as she felt that she now belong to a loving family, ever since she joined.

I then thought, my speech in high school is now long overdue and that it is time to go further and finally establish my charity project, so I did and I named it AMF Charity Project, my charity aims to extend help to the less fortunate globally, "who have no one and nowhere else to turn to" and is funded by my music shows online and of course, kind-hearted contributors are very welcome as well.

I was very blessed to have met a beautiful soul from India who became a very good friend and had helped me through my online musical journey as well as to find suitable beneficiaries in India, and my cousin from the Philippines offered to help find suitable beneficiaries in the Philippines.

On my birthday 8th of April 2021, I gifted myself with launching my AMF Charity Project with a musical show and had a few artists as guest performers on the night, as well as one of our beneficiaries from the Philippines, singing for us that night as well, and this was when we released our first Charity funding to our 4 family beneficiaries., 2 in India and 2 in the Philippines

We planned to support each family for 3 months, to ensure they are stable, then we will assist new sets of family beneficiaries after that 3 months.

I plan to host a music show each month, releasing the monthly funding each time, and to give our beneficiaries the chance to share their story with the world, and for us to share, what the joy of giving brings to our lives and hopefully encourage people to start doing the same.

We have decided to give both our Philippines beneficiaries their mini store to run within their premises, funded by the AMF Charity project, as both families have a family member that needs ongoing support, therefore, they are unable to leave them alone at home.

Each mini store will be closely monitored for assistance and full support by my cousin, the Philippine coordinator.

I was overjoyed when I was advised that both mini-stores had replenished their stocks using their first week's sales and is still growing with more types of goods purchased to sell as we speak.

We have provided our beneficiaries in India with their daily needs and medications to enable them to start gaining strength, to get back to the workforce, one of which is planning to open up her hairdressing salon soon.

I honestly did not realise how much of an impact my charity project will have on these families, and I am truly blessed and thankful that I was given the chance to do this, and met kind-hearted people to help me in this journey, as the feeling I get from knowing how much of a difference this project has made towards the lives of these families, is more than enough rewards to last me a lifetime.

I will continue to work hard to fund my charity project for as long as I can and I am hoping that my story can serve as an encouragement and inspiration for people to feel it in their hearts to share the love with others, as I can guarantee that the indescribable feeling deep inside you of overwhelming happiness is definitely beyond words!...