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Ed Sheeran pays for safe home for Liberian boys after moving Comic Relief trip

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Sharnaz Shahid
Deputy Online Editor
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Ed Sheeran has paid for a group of Liberian children to stay in a safe place following his recent trip to the country in aid of Comic Relief. Following Friday night's emotional plea during the televised show, the organisation has confirmed that the British singer has ensured the young boys are now safe. A spokesperson tweeted: "JD & his friends, who Ed Sheeran met, are now safe but many more children still live in danger. Help us help them."

During Comic Relief, in a pre-recorded film, Ed was seen breaking down in tears as he told cameras it "really does not feel right leaving, at all". The footage saw him meet a young boy called JD and a group of his friends on the streets of Monrovia. Several children have been left orphans after losing their parents in the Ebola outbreak which hit the West African country two years ago. Ed stated that he would make sure the kids should be safe "no matter what the cost". He explained: "My natural instinct is just to put them in a car and just take them, and just put them somewhere in the city, and put them in a hotel until we can get them sorted." Appealing to viewers, he added: "Can we do that? Can I pay for them to stay in a house until we can get them in a school? It doesn't matter how much it costs can we just get him and his five mates in a house with an older person to look after them… I don't think we can go until that's sorted."

ed 2z© Photo: BBC

Ed Sheeran has paid for a safe home for Liberian boys after moving Comic Relief trip

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Ed, 26, also met a 12-year-old girl, called Peaches, who lost her father to Ebola. "The last thing I always wanted this trip to be was be a celebrity that comes to Africa and cries on TV," continued the star. "I really wanted to come away saying everything is positive and everything is great and then I was just singing with that girl and she was all smiling and then she started crying." Ed continued: "Her dad taught her how to sing and she got really choked up about it. I watch Comic Relief every single year and this is always what celebrities do. I think, 'Is it really that bad?' And then I sort of turn up and... 'Yes it is.' That's just one girl out here, that's just one story and she's the one girl that came up to us."

Comic Relief managed to raise £71,308,475 on Friday night to help people living incredibly tough lives both here in the UK and across some of the world's poorest communities.