The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today released a new video message aimed at highlighting the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa, with a song recorded by the renowned a cappella group, The Dartmouth Aires.

“We at UNDP are deeply grateful to the Aires for using their musical gifts and their celebrity to help raise awareness of the plight of people in the Horn of Africa,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.

Earlier this month, before a sold-out concert at Lincoln Center, the award-winning, all-male, undergraduate group visited UN Headquarters in New York to record “Calling My Children Home,” along with a public service message for UNDP. Last month, the UN appealed for $1.5 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions of people in Somalia during 2012.

The song, which draws on traditional ballads, evokes a close-knit clan scattered to distant regions, much as the ongoing famine has forced starving families to leave their villages and walk, often for weeks, in search of food.