WATCH: Axminster Community Waffle House releases 'Waffle Aid' charity Christmas single

The team at Axminster Community Waffle House have today (Friday) released its first charity single to help tackle mass starvation amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya this Christmas.

Adapted from the charity hit 'Do They Know It's Christmas?', initially released in 1984 by Bob Geldof's Band Aid, it is hoped the 'Waffle Aid' single will raise £10,000 for the charity Awaken Love for Africa.

The idea was the brainchild of Chelsea and Mike, two employees at the Waffle House, who wanted to support their colleague Sophie McLachlan, who also runs Awaken Love For Africa, in a bid to raise £10,000 to support the Gideons Orphanage in Ramba, Kenya.

Kenya has been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic; the nation shut down jobs and market places, and thousands of people were left without food or any income.

Following several weeks of rehearsing, recording, mixing and messaging across continents, the Waffle House has now released its five-minute song and music video, released on social media today, with 100 per cent of proceeds from sales and donations going directly to the orphanage.

The track has been produced from scratch by a dedicated team of musicians made up of staff, volunteers and friends of Waffle and features some of the Gideons children themselves.

It is now available to buy or stream via Bandcamp for £4, with the hope that sales of the track will help provide a Christmas meal and a backpack to 800 children, most of whom have not had a chicken dinner in over a year.

The charity is also hoping to send food packages home to 500 elderly and extremely poor people in the Gideons community, to support them for two weeks following Christmas.

Speaking of how the idea came about Mike, manager of the Community Waffle House, said: "Sophie's work with the Gideon's has really touched my heart and when Chelsea suggested the we should record our own version of Band Aid's 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' under the name of 'Waffle Aid', I took the idea, assembled a team from our community and we ran with it."

Sophie, co-founder of Awaken Love for Africa, is currently staying at the Gideon's Orphanage after almost two years of not being able to travel due to COVID-19.

She said: "Everyone here is so excited to be in a 'real-life' music video!

"Over the years we have built up an amazing relationship between the community in East Devon and the community here at Gideons and this honestly couldn't come at a better time as we currently have no food in the storeroom."

Anyone wishing to support the cause can either purchase the track on Bandcamp at waffleaid.bandcamp.com or donate through the fundraising site

www.stewardship.org.uk/pages/waffleaid Awaken Love For Africa works with orphans, widows and HIV/Aids victims, including the Gideons Orphanage since April 2009. This orphanage has grown from 35 children to more than 380 living permanently on site. The charity built a school which provides education to more than 600 children in the community. Awaken Love also plans to build workshops to provide skills for the community and orphans to get jobs. It also seeks to improve the medical problems in Kenya and has built a medical clinic on site to treat malaria immediately. The charity has also planted more than 400,000 trees on its land, plus maize which is helping residents to become self sufficient.