Kat Harlton
Lead Photo: Travis Nesbitt
Jason McCoy’s longtime connection with World Vision Canada has led to a new collaboration: “We Are One,” a reimagined single carrying a message of love and unity. We spoke with Amanda Power of World Vision Canada about the partnership, the inspiration behind the song, and how McCoy’s connection with the organization has evolved over the years.
Kat: “We Are One” is spearheaded by Jason McCoy from The Road Hammers. Can you tell us how he got involved?
Amanda: Jason first became a supporter of World Vision Canada around 2015. He experienced World Vision’s work firsthand when he travelled to Honduras in 2017. That trip touched his heart, and when the Entertainment Partnerships Artist Program began rebuilding post-pandemic, Jason was one of the first artists we connected with.
Jason and Jim Payetta originally wrote the “We Are One” song in 2020 to share love and support during a difficult time for everyone worldwide. As Jason rekindled his partnership with World Vision Canada, he saw an opportunity to rewrite the lyrics, bringing a message of love and unity with children and families in Zimbabwe to his fans in Canada and worldwide.
Kat: The song carries a message of hope, compassion and unity. How does that message connect with World Vision Canada’s mission and the work you do with children and families around the world?
Amanda: World Vision is a Christian charity that helps children and families overcome poverty in the world’s most vulnerable places. With Canadian’s help, children experience the fullness of life through child sponsorship, emergency relief and community-led programs.
World Vision believes in supporting children, families, and communities with a helping hand to lead them towards long-term self-sustainability. Helping to make generational impact for the children of today and positive change for the communities of tomorrow through education, safe water, nutrition, and healthcare accessible to all. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.
The lyrics of the song are powerful: “Oh, the miles may divide us, but love will unite us. We will rise and overcome, We Are One. One World, One Fight, One Heart, One Life, underneath one sun.” The lyrics embody exactly what World Vision’s founder, Bob Pierce, set out to do when he donated his last $5 to help an orphaned girl in China in 1950. That simple act of compassion sparked a global movement that continues today.
Kat: What do you hope listeners take away from “We Are One” beyond the music itself? Is there a particular call to action or change in perspective you hope the song inspires?
Amanda: We hope the song reminds people that through positive impact, generational change can be achieved. For $49 CDN a month, less than a cup of coffee a day, a person can have a life-changing impact on a child, that child’s family, and that child’s community.
Child sponsorship isn’t about supporting one child only. Funds are pooled together to support the entire community. That entire community benefits with access to clean water, education for children and young people, nutrition, healthcare, and support programs to teach adults, parents, and grandparents how to become financially self-sustainable, ultimately removing barriers so communities can build brighter futures.
Musically, the song is incredible… it’ll be stuck in your head for days. Lyrically, the song brings a message of joy, love, and compassion for all of mankind. It really isn’t difficult to be a nice person, but it is a conscious choice to make a difference in the world beyond the one you live in. We hope the song, musically and lyrically, brings joy and inspires someone to make a difference by sponsoring a child today: www.WorldVision.ca/JasonMcCoy.
Kat: World Vision works to create meaningful, lasting change in the lives of children and communities. Can you tell us more about the impact Canadians can have by getting involved or supporting World Vision’s work?
Amanda: Canadians partner with World Vision Canada because of our trusted reputation and measurable impact. Beyond urgent aid, we know real change requires an exit plan. We restore dignity for those we serve and help generations flourish.
Since 1957, World Vision Canada has worked alongside communities, supporters, partners and governments to create lasting change for children. In 2025 alone, we reached 10.3 million children and adults with programs that promote sustainable change in vulnerable places.
World Vision Canada is recognized by Charity Intelligence Canada as a Top 10 International Impact Charity – the only international aid charity on the list. This means we deliver one of the highest impacts per dollar donated among Canadian charities working overseas. Over the past five years, 85 percent of funds went directly to development and advocacy work, funding programs that deliver clean water, education, healthcare and more; 10 percent to fundraising and 5 percent to administration. We also undergo regular independent audits by KPMG to ensure accuracy and transparency.
For over 30 years, we’ve worked with the World Food Programme (WFP) to bring life-saving help to people in crisis and support long-term change. As one of WFP’s main partners, we run programs in some of the hardest places to reach—improving nutrition, health, education and food security, while helping communities become strong and independent.
Kat: Tell us about the recent trip Michelle Wright and Jason McCoy went on and how it supports the efforts around the single?
Amanda: In June of this year, we travelled to Zimbabwe, the Hwange Region just outside of Victoria Falls, to be precise, with Jason, his daughter Grace, Michelle, her husband Marco, and a small team from World Vision Canada, with the goal of sharing the experience of what child sponsorship truly looks like on the ground, IRL as the kids say. For Michelle and Jason to see, with their own eyes, the work World Vision continues to do in that region, and to experience, through the eyes of their loved ones, what that looks and feels like.
Both Jason and Michelle have travelled with World Vision Canada in the past – Jason to Honduras (2017), and Michelle to Zambia (2002), Honduras (2004) and the Dominican Republic (2013). Continuing to witness the complexities of poverty in different countries, reminds us all why our work is vital to creating generational change in some of the world’s most difficult places to live.
Michelle and Jason, along with Grace and Marco, witnessed many of the difficult life journeys the people of Zimbabwe face every day. They participated in a “water walk,” where they experienced the physical and emotional reality families in the Ndimakule Community faced before World Vision Canada built water systems that provide access to clean water. They visited community gardens, women’s and children’s safe spaces, and multiple schools, including the recently built Chenabi Secondary School, where young people receive an education, safely, without having to walk upwards of 20 kilometres to school, one way.
Both Jason and Michelle met their sponsored children. Michelle and Marco sponsor Kelly, a vibrant 13-year-old who lives with her grandmother and two siblings. Michelle and Marco spent time with Kelly and her family at her homestead and had a special afternoon watching her compete in the local sports day competition at her school.
Jason and his family sponsor Michael, an 11-year-old who lives with his grandmother and two siblings. Michael was proud to show Jason and Grace where he lived, how to catch a goat, the community garden where his family grows healthy food, and where he goes to school.
The purpose of the trip was to continue to build the foundations of a partnership with two of Canada’s most respected country music artists who choose to use their platform and share their World Vision child sponsorship journey with their audiences, with the goal of inspiring those fans to enter into a journey of their own by changing the life of a child.
World Vision Canada is absolutely thrilled to partner with The Great Canadian Roadtrip, featuring Jason, Michelle, and Doc Walker, and to partner with Michelle on her upcoming solo tour dates. Through these touring partnerships, incredible artists like Jason and Michelle can bring the stories of child sponsorship to life for their audiences.
Kat: A music video will also be released alongside the song, featuring footage from your trip to Zimbabwe. What was it like revisiting that experience through the music video?
Amanda: As we were planning for our time in Zimbabwe, we thought filming a music video to accompany the “We Are One” song release, and integrating that video into the upcoming Great Canadian Roadtrip tour, was a unique way to share the joy of Jason and Michelle’s Zimbabwe experience with the audience.
The idea of “hand-painting” a guitar with the help of children from Bethesda Primary School in the Hwange Region became a symbol of child sponsorship as a helping hand that empowers children to grow, thrive, and stand on their own. Every handprint tells a story. These children are “leaving their mark” as proof they were there, that they matter, that children’s voices matter.
Revisiting the experience of filming the video, spending time with the children, and teachers of Bethesda Primary School brought up a lot of powerful emotions. Everyone involved felt so much joy that day. The kids, ranging from JK through grade 8, were excited to host Jason and Michelle. They had learned all of the words to “We Are One” in perfect English and were more than ready to share that joy with us.
Everyone was very proud to show us their school, their classrooms, and their goats (yes, goats! Kept as part of the school’s self-sustaining economic program and cared for by the teachers who live on-site). With support from World Vision Canada, a new classroom building is under construction. This expanded space will allow more children to attend school and receive the much-desired education all young people want.
The day was also a powerful reminder that all kids want the same things in life – to be kids. To learn, play with friends, experience new things, have full tummies, clean water, and to be safe. The stark reality is that many children, some not far from Bethesda Primary School, do not have access to these most basic human needs.
The work World Vision does is entirely based on donations – money raised by child sponsorship allows our programs in Zimbabwe and worldwide to continue and support other communities, helping more children, more families, and more communities to receive that helping hand up to self-sustainability.
Connect:
https://www.instagram.com/thejasonmccoy
https://www.instagram.com/michellewrightmusic
https://www.instagram.com/worldvisioncan