One Direction On Giving Back With Charity Comic Relief

The great Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Action expresses priorities." This quote always gets me thinking about giving back. Many musicians make charity work a top priority, whether it's close to home or a continent away. That's where my favorite fivesome, One Direction, comes in! A six-hour-and-fifty-minute flight and five visas later, Harry, Zayn, Liam, Louis, and Niall found themselves in the Agbogbloshie slum in Accra, Ghana, to see how funds earned by U.K. charity Comic Relief's Red Nose Day are helping the less fortunate.

"It was incredibly eye-opening for us all," says Harry, describing the band's experience visiting schools and a children's hospital, where they saw firsthand kids dying from preventable diseases. "It was hard to stay composed," adds Niall. "There were as many upsetting and moving moments as there were ones of elation and joy." Meeting the people was the best part, they agreed. "We met a family who just had a baby, and they were celebrating," recalls Zayn. "There was such a feeling of unity."

Story edited for TeenVogue.com. Pick up the complete story with One Direction in the May issue of Teen Vogue, on newsstands April 16.