This article is imported from our 2017 Stop Poverty Campaign web site.

A self-taught musician, Jean-Francois Gay’s music is inspired by reggae as much as the experience of his life.  Born in Port-au-Prince where ATD Fourth World has had a team for more than 30 years, Gay learned guitar in an ATD Fourth World street library and dreams of earning a living as a musician.

Video of With My Own Two Hands, a ‘Song Around The World’. Includes Jean-Francois Gay.

Following in his mother’s footsteps, he has been active with his local ATD Fourth World team for many years. At the request of the residents of Grand Ravine, he composed the song Verses in Honor of the Fourth World with the words of Joseph Wresinski’s “I Bear Witness to You” speech from October 17, 1987.

The song is one of more than three hundred songs of dignity and struggle that were brought together from around the world to be part of the Stop Poverty campaign.  It will be part of the RFI (French International Radio) broadcast Couleurs Tropicales on Friday February 10, 2017.

Video with French subtitles: