Pastor Wesley De Costa wants to use music to help youngsters.
A pastor from The Potters House Christian Fellowship Church, Wesley De Costa, has launched a campaign to tackle the increase in knife crime. He states “Violence – it doesn’t care about relatives. It’s not after anyone in particular; it’s after everyone.”
Wesley has experienced the effects of such crimes following the death of his cousin, who was a victim of knife crime 11 years ago. The 25-year-old said “Knife crime, it’s always been around, but recently it’s been in the news a lot more and there has been an increase in crimes relating to knives.
“We’re looking to get to the root of the problem – if you get to the root you can deal with a lot of it. We know all knife crime is not going to stop if we do events and things, but it changes the climate of the youth in Walsall who see there are more events taking place on knife crime.
“And it gets people thinking and considering their ways and what they are doing – how can they prevent it themselves? It takes encouragement for people to put down their knives, which is why we called it [the campaign] Disarmed.
“We want to engage and inspire the youth and get them to come and see what we’re about – and to change the misconception that all churches are cold and echo-ey.”
The campaign wants to achieve this encouragement through music. By sending out the counteract messages through drill and grime music.
Wesley De Costa continued “As a pastor, my primary role is to care for people, and I want it to hit home for them. It’s [the campaign] based around music and a drama skit. It’s music young people listen to and we’ve chosen it deliberately.
“In that music they promote crime, so through music like grime and drill, we switch it completely to bring the reality out – that knife crime is not a glamorous thing.
“It’s for people to understand that it’s unacceptable – lives are being taken.”
The next upcoming performance to take place in Walsall will be at the end of September; however, the campaign is set to go nationwide to spread the message.
Navkiran Bains
