Aug 10, 2011 – A groundbreaking social media Campaign featuring Bob Marley and several other big names in entertainment has been launched to help raise funds to ease the effects of the famine in East Africa.

The ‘I’m Gonna Be Your Friend’ campaign is intended to reach a global audience of about one billion Facebook and Twitter fans through a short film of the crisis by award-winning director Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland).

His film is set to the 1973 Bob Marley & The Wailers song ‘High Tide or Low Tide’ in a movement that was developed to back a fundraising effort by Save the Children.

From Tuesday, many icons, celebrities and artists across the world including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Beyonce, Eminem, Rihanna, Britney Spears, David Beckham, U2, Kanye West, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Muhammad Ali, Muse, Coldplay, Elton John, Lewis Hamilton, Bruno Mars, Robert Plant, Cristiano Ronaldo, Brian May, Sting, and many others are launching the campaign via their huge networks of friends and fans on Facebook and Twitter (#beafriend), according to Save the Children’s website.

The food crisis in Somalia and across East Africa is the worst in decades, with about 10 million people affected, four million of them from Kenya.

To help raise funds, the song and film can be downloaded through ITunes or via Bob Marley’s Facebook page for Sh122. The Facebook page will also feature click-through links for direct donations to Save the Children’s East Africa fundraising appeal.

“The single, ‘High Tide or Low Tide’ was specially chosen by the Marley family for the resonance of the single’s lyrics, “I’m Gonna Be Your Friend”, which form the title of the campaign and a message to be shared by friends across their social networks.”

According to Rita Marley: “Not one child should be denied food nor water. Not one child should suffer. Along with Save the Children, we must stand up together as friends to put a stop to this, to feed our children and to save their lives.”