Partner organisation: terre des hommes Germany
2022
Summer music school in Khanasore
Mirzo Music Foundation for Development and Relief
During the months of June and July, 83 students (38 boys, 45 girls) participated in musical playing lessons and instrumental music workshops at the Summer Music School in Khanasore. Music lessons were offered in saz, violin, guitar, buzuk, daf and tambur shingali (a traditional Yazidi drum instrument). In addition, there were singing lessons, choir lessons and ensemble lessons.
Children at the music workhop (Photo: Jo Schultz)
In the reporting period, there were also two public performances by a music group formed by participants of the summer music school.
Unfortunately, there were several air raids by Turkey and armed conflicts in and around Sinjar at that time, so the music school had to be closed for days. Parents and children were often intimidated, which somewhat hindered uninterrupted attendance at the music school. It was all the more important for the children and young people to experience community and psychosocial support there during the rest of the time.
Walking Arts – music therapy training and music workshops with Syrian refugee children
Following the previous project, a fourth training block in music therapy/music education was offered by an international music therapist for 8 musicians (6 women / 2 men) from the Walking Arts group. The training participants had all already taken part in the previous 3 training blocks.
Children at the workshop in the Arbat Camp (Photo: Jo Schultz)
Parallel to this training, there was a 5-day music programme in the Arbat refugee camp for Syrian refugees. 300 children between the ages of 3 and 10 took part in groups of 20 children each. This offer serves the practical work of the training of the future music therapists as well as a psychosocial summer offer for children in the camp. Five volunteers from the cultural centre in Arbat Camp also took part in the workshop. In the future, they will offer the games and techniques they learned at the camp’s cultural centre.
Walking Arts received support during the training and workshops in the form of free accommodation in a monastery near the Arbat refugee camp. This meant that originally calculated costs could be saved. Walking Arts was able to top up the freed-up funds with its own so that a budget for a further training block with music workshops for children could be made possible.
2019-2020
Salam Al Ud – Peacebuilding for youth
From 28.01. – 30.01.2020, a 3-day workshop was held for social workers, psychologists and staff from the field of psychosocial support.
Group picture of the training participants (Photo: terre des hommes)
The total of 16 participants (6 men and 10 women) work for the following local and international NGOs and local government agencies: Green Desert, Qandil, Save the Children International, International Medical Corps, Be Part, SEED Foundation and Shahan & Kamaran State Schools.
The training was conducted by Hoshyar Karim, a well-known Kurdish-Iraqi musician with many years of experience in using music as an element of psychosocial support.
Half of the workshop consisted of theory and the other half of practical exercises. The participants were given the opportunity to try out musical instruments themselves in order to better assess and understand their use in work with children and young people.
2018
In the refugee camp Debaga in Iraqi Kurdistan, the children of the families living there and the many orphans are offered cultural and artistic activities for three months by terre des hommes, financed by Hoffnung13: guitar playing, drumming courses and pottery classes.
Children at the Debaga refugee camp (Photo: Jo Schultz)
“The unifying moment of music helps to overcome personal burdens – at least temporarily – on the one hand, and to rise above barriers of religious and ethnic identity on the other.”