Portuguese engineer Nelson Abreu launched a solidarity project to raise support funds for the victims of fireworks who hit Los Angeles, USA, in January, through the original song “SOCKS & BIRKENTOCKS”.
Nelson Abreu He is an engineer, but it is not being news for some revolutionary invention that helps people victims of fires. For this emigrated Portuguese in the US, Just a song.
In the early hours of Monday, at the Short Stories restaurant in Los Angeles, Nelson Abreu launched a song to help the victims of the fires.
The goal is to draw attention to the precarious situation of those who have lost homes and businesses in fire and raise donations to the Altadena Community Preservation Fund.
Anyone can do donations using the Altadena Community Preservation Fund shared in the YouTube video.
Why “socks and sandals”?
The idea came from a telephone conversation from friend Dilan Wijesinghewhich was sheltered at home because of the devastating fireworks in Altadena, 25 kilometers from Baixa de Los Angeles, Lusa Nelson Abreu.
“The brother asked him if he needed to bring something and he answered ‘socks and Birkenstocks’ [meias e sandálias da marca alemã Birkenstock]”Nelson Abreu found it curious that this had been the friend’s first request and considered that the expression had a musical air, by rhyme.
“I started making some jokes with him to distract and gradually the joke became increasingly serious,” said the Portuguese. Nelson Abreu had never written a song, but dedicated himself to working in the lyrics and showed his friend, who later arranged the instruments to record.
The Portuguese gave the roof to Dilan Wijesinghe for two months. Although his house had been spared by fire, asbestos and lead of the area’s old buildings contaminated the water supply system – and neither boil the water was considered safe.
In Altadena, Eaton fire burned six thousand homes and caused 17 dead between 7 and 31 January. This was a primarily African-American community that rooted in the area during the days when “red lines” in real estate prevented black people from buying houses elsewhere.
“We saw that the people who needed the most help were those of the neighborhood, who could not make buildings on other parts of the city because of segregation practices,” explained Nelson Abreu. “We found a background that helps these families and thought use music for people to donate”.
Besides a comic element, with a rhythm and a letter that make dance, Socks & Birkenstocks It also draws attention to the role that climate change They had in the severity of these fires.
“This song also came from this frustration of people with the fact that rulers do not do enough to fight Climate change and disasters, ”said engineer Nelson Abreu.
