British film star Alan Rickman narrated a charity video relating to the aid of refugees shortly before his cancer-related death on Jan. 14.
The 30-second video was created in collaboration with nonprofit OneClickGiving and features a tortoise eating a strawberry.
Throughout the video, Rickman explained that by watching and sharing, viewers have an opportunity to make a difference.
“The more viewers the video gets, the more advertising revenue YouTube will give us,” he said within the voiceover. “All you need to do is watch and share.”
The video, titled “This Tortoise Could Save a Life,” has received well over three million views on YouTube since it was uploaded, with the money raised from each view going to the Refugee Council and Save the Children charities.
Save the Children works worldwide to improve the lives of child refugees through aid and support, and the Refugee Council works to help refugees seek safety and rebuild their lives within the United Kingdom.
“It is an innovative project for an extremely important cause,” OneClickCharity founder Oliver Phillips said in a press release. “Our charities are two of the most effective at helping refugees, who desperately need your support.”
The refugee crisis has become a growing global concern as the number of displaced individuals worldwide continues to grow. According to the UN Refugee Agency, there were 19.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2014. That’s 2.9 million more than in 2013. Just over half of those refugees, or 51 percent, were under 18 years old, the highest amount of child refugees in more than a decade.
Phillips recently told the BBC that the charity believes it was one of the last recordings the late actor made.
“I’m so grateful that with all this going on he still agreed to give us his time, it’s really amazing,” he said. “It would not have been the same without him. All the views we’ve got are accountable to him.”
Alan Rickman, best known for his roles in Harry Potter and Die Hard, worked with a variety of charities throughout his lifetime. According to BBC Radio, the well-known actor was the president of the International Performer’s Aid Trust, which focuses on poverty alleviation throughout the world’s toughest conditions.
The link to the YouTube video is as follows, titled This Tortoise Could Save a Life — Ft. Alan Rickman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkiMz-e2ZcE
– Lauren Lewis
Sources: Youtube, TFN, Look to the Stars, Arts.Mic, Mashable, ABC, BBC, Save the Children, Refugee Council, BBC Radio, One Click Giving
Photo: Flickr