Several thousand miles away, people are forced to carry family members on their backs, and others who can’t walk find themselves relegated to crawling.
It may seem as if the more than 130,000 physically disabled people of Malawi, Africa are too far away to help directly, but an upcoming concert in San Luis Obispo will provide an opportunity for locals to do something about their plight.
Moral Support, a folk-rock band from San Luis Obispo, will headline a benefit concert for the Cal Poly Wheelchair Foundation at 7 p.m. Friday at the San Luis Obispo Art Center, located at 1010 Broad St. A $5 donation to the event will help send wheelchairs and aid to Malawi, whose people are also plagued by diseases and malnutrition. All ages are welcome.
“It’s hard for us to visualize having to carry our relatives, our sisters and brothers around town on our backs because there’s no wheelchair for them,” said business senior Josh Burroughs, project manager for the Cal Poly Wheelchair Foundation and member of Moral Support. “If you look at the U.S., you don’t really see people crawling around on the ground or anything. It’s totally different worldwide.”
The Cal Poly Wheelchair Foundation, according to Burroughs, has set a goal of raising $1,500, an amount that would pay for 20 wheelchairs and could also help provide for much-needed water wells.
Moral Support is comprised of Burroughs, who plays keyboard, ukulele and harmonica, vocalist and guitarist Jack Poulis, guitarist and vocalist Kyle Slattery, drummer Kyle Cameron, and bassist Scott Maguire. The group members met in 2006 in the dorms.
The band, which Slattery characterized as “acoustic jam folk rock,” lists Radiohead, Johnny Cash and Jack Johnson among its influences.
“We draw influences from all over but ultimately a lot of it is just ourselves influencing each other,” Slattery added. “It all depends what we write and share with each other.”
For Moral Support, the opportunity to partake in a benefit concert was in accordance with the group’s general outlook, Slattery said.
“Our music has always been a means of supporting each other – each band member was there to support us, and now it’s like we can use our musical talent to support a good cause,” he explained. “We’ve supported each other and now this is a chance to go beyond ourselves.”
According to Burroughs, there are approximately 100 million people across the globe lacking mobility, and the problem is magnified in Africa due to its AIDS epidemic.
Hip-hip group Kauzafex of San Luis Obispo will open the concert as a special guest.
“They’re unique and bring something different than us,” Burroughs said of Kauzafex, which is made up of MCs Hume and Lemore and producer Evol.