Chiming in with chorus of caring

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/07/2025 (436 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Forty years ago — on July 13, 1985 — Live Aid rocked the world to raise funds for millions of starving people in Ethiopia. And a Manitoban helped make it happen.

That Manitoban was William Rew. He was the pilot who flew a BBC film crew into what was considered the epicentre of the famine in the fall of 1984 so they could provide the world with its first view of the terrible suffering unfolding in that country. It was that coverage which led to Live Aid.

At the time, Rew was on a voluntary year’s leave as a pilot from Air Canada, which had a surplus of pilots at the time. Rew, who had always wanted to spend time in Africa, took the offer and signed up with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), an international Christian organization that provides aviation and communication services for remote communities in the Global South.

“MAF needed pilots to help with flying relief supplies in Ethiopia,” said Rew, 72, who grew up in a devout Plymouth Brethren family. “They had four criteria for pilots: We had to give a year, be single, have experience on de Havilland Canada Twin Otter aircraft and be a person of faith. I checked all the boxes.”

Rew went to Ethiopia in the fall of 1983 with MAF to fly food to starving people in remote parts of the country.

“It was difficult flying,” he said of how he made five or six trips a day to isolated communities with only grass or dirt landing strips. “The airplanes took a real pounding.”

The BBC trip came near the end of his year there. Together with co-pilot Keith Ketchum, another Canadian, they flew the reporting crew to Korem in the northern part of Ethiopia on Oct. 19, 1984.

“It was just another day at work in Ethiopia,” Rew said, adding he had never been to Korem, as it was too dangerous — it was in the heart of the nation’s civil war.

They dropped off the BBC crew, including TV reporter Michael Buerk, camera operator Mohammed Amin and radio reporter Mike Wooldridge, then flew on to another remote town before returning a day later to pick them up.

After flying back to the capital, Addis Ababa, Rew and Ketchum said goodbye to the BBC crew and went back to their regular work. Shortly after, Rew completed his time with MAF and went on an extended and news-free holiday in Europe before returning to Canada in mid-November.

When he arrived back in Winnipeg, he was surprised to find the Ethiopian famine all over the news because of that BBC report, which aired on Oct. 23, 1984.

The graphic reporting showed what BBC radio reporter Wooldridge described as “Hell on Earth,” a place where thousands were dying every week due to drought, war and neglect by the country’s then Marxist government.

It was only then that Rew understood the impact of what he had been part of. “There was a firestorm of media attention about it when I got home,” he said. “The media was lining up to hear my story.”

It was a significant contrast to six months earlier, when Rew had come home to Winnipeg on furlough. At that time, nobody was talking about the millions of people starving in Ethiopia. “It was very obvious there was a big change as a result of that BBC report,” Rew said.

One of the people who saw that report was Bob Geldof, then a member of Irish band the Boomtown Rats. Galvanized by what he saw, Geldof, along with musician Midge Ure, came up with the idea for Band Aid, which found some of the decade’s biggest musical stars joining together to record Do They Know It’s Christmas? to raise money for famine relief.

As a followup, they organized Live Aid, which took place nine months later in London and Philadelphia, and was broadcast to more than 150 countries where it was seen by 1.5 billion people. Bands and musicians who participated included U2, Queen, Dire Straits, the Who, Elton John, Black Sabbath, Run-D.M.C., Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Judas Priest, the Beach Boys, Bryan Adams and many others. Altogether, Band Aid and Live Aid raised more than US$150 million for famine victims in Ethiopia.

Now, at the 40th anniversary of that historic event, Rew is reflective. “I ended up flying to the perfect place in Ethiopia to shock the world into doing something about the famine,” he said. “It’s a huge part of my memory. I remember it every time Oct. 19 rolls around.”

He also recalls the many experiences he had in Ethiopia while flying in life-saving food.

“That was the only time in my life when I kept a diary,” Rew said, adding he didn’t take many pictures. “I felt uncomfortable taking photos of people who were suffering. It didn’t seem right.”

Today Rew is retired after a 41-year career with Air Canada and lives in the city with his wife, Leona. They are members of St. Margaret’s Anglican Church.

Looking back, he thinks about how small acts, like being the pilot for that world-changing flight, can have a big impact.

“Maybe it can provide hope to others who think change isn’t possible,” he said. “No matter how hopeless it looks to us, change can happen. And when the world puts its mind to it, which they did after the BBC documentary, things like famines can be overcome.”

Faith@freepress.mb.ca

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