TWENTY-FIVE per cent of the royalities from Carlene Davis’s latest 17-track album Dripping Blood will be going towards the Ebola fight in Liberia. Tommy Cowan, producer of gospel set Dripping Blood, made the revelation of the details to the Jamaica Observer yesterday. “We came to an agreement with Chris Chin, the CEO of VP Records, a week ago, to deduct the royalities and submit it to Samaritan’s Purse based in the United States.

VP Records is the distributor of the album,” said Cowan. “The set is expected to go on sale in the United States between now and December 6.” Founded 1970, Samaritan’s Purse is an evangelical Christian humanitarian organisation that provides aid to people in physical need as a key part of Christian missionary work. It was founded by Franklin Graham, son of renowned American evangelist Billy Graham, and Robert Pierce.

Cowan said Samaritan’s Purse was selected as, based on his research, they have crews on the ground in Liberia. At her album launch at Redbones Blues Café in St Andrew in mid-October, Carlene Davis said she made the decision days after seeing a picture in the Sunday Observer of a nine-year-old Liberian girl — Mercy Kennedy — crying because she lost her mother to Ebola. The Jamaican Government recently issued a ban on people travelling to the island from Ebola-affected countries. Prior to that, Health Minister Fenton Ferguson urged entertainers to stay away from the affected countries.

According to the World Health Organisation, close to 5,000 people have lost their lives to the dreaded virus. Countries in West Africa hard hit are Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Davis, 61, enjoyed moderate success in the 1980s and 90s with hits including Winnie Mandela, Welcome Home, Mr Mandela, It Must Be Love, Going Down To Paradise, Stealing Love On The Side, Santa Claus Do You Ever Come To The Ghetto, Dial My Number, and Like Old Friends Do.