19-01-2009
end of attack on Gaza
On this trailer of the documentary film "The Exchange" (on the projects of Ictus and Music Fund in the Middle East) you can hear Mrs Reem Abu Jaber, the director of the Gaza Qattan Centre for the Child (her picture), speak about the partnership between Music Fund and the A.M. Al-Qattan Foundation.
I have spoken this weekend with Reem, as well as with other friends in Gaza, such as Mona Abu Ramadan, who are all very relieved that the attack of the Israeli army seems to be over for a while. They all hope and expect for a lot of support from outside to rebuild what has been destroyed.
I really hope that we will succeed with Music Fund to be in Gaza in April in order to give support to the music school of Qattan via training of technicians and the donation of instruments and tools. We still need to assure the budgets for this 'mission' and I sure hope that we will succeed in doing so !
16-01-2009
video-clip on Music Fund in Kinshasa
Here you can find a 10 minute compilation of our 'mission' to Kinshasa, made by guitar-maker Jacky Walraet, who was together with Karel Dedain sent by Music Fund to teach repair-techniques at the Institut National des Arts of Kinshasa from 27th December until 6th January:
08-01-2009
article "A Third Party for the Middle East"
In August 2006 in the middle of the Lebanon war, I wrote the article "A Third Party for the Middle East" (click here to read it). It has not lost much of its actuality, nor do I think very different about it all. These thoughts still inspire a lot of my engagement in our projects in the region, in and outside Westbank and Gaza.
The article was published in Belgium in De Standaard and in Le Soir, and in Israel in the Haaretz.
06-01-2009
Gaza (Palestine) comes to Antwerp (Belgium)
My friend Karin Heremans called upon me yesterday. She is the director of the Atheneum, the largest secondary school of Antwerpen, Belgium. Last year, Karen Heremans, Mohammed Filali, Aharon Malinsky and myself went together to Israel where I organised them several days of meetings with representatives of schools and organisations from within the Arab as well as Jewish communities (see this blog in February 2008).
© with Karen, Mohammed and Aharon in Nazareth, January 2008
The tensions and killings in the Middle East can again – as always – be enormously felt within the diffierent communities (Jewish and Muslim) in the city of Antwerp. Karin tells me that she is very worried about the possible danger of things going wrong in the city.
She wants me to help them communicate with the youngsters in the school (many of them from Maroccan and Turkish origin) and invite them to listen to different testimonies about the people that live in Israel and Palestine… testimonies which go beyond the black-and-white presentations which are often proposed by media here and over there, presenting one side as the victims and the other side as the aggressor.
As we are often there with Ictus and Music Fund, we have things to tell them, which are different from the information which the media give, hoping that the emotional reactions of anger towards all the misery does not necessarily only lead to aggressive behaviour towards people living in Antwerp (of the Jewish community of Antwerp or others) who could be seen of ‘ennemy’ of the Arab and Muslim people. We know many people in Israel who also desperately long for peace and security and who are sick of the killings and the occupation. We can tell them about these friends.
© a donation of Music Fund (piano and more instruments) waiting at Karni checkpoint (Gaza) to be transfered into the Gaza Strip, January 2006
last day in Kinshasa
Today is our last day in Kinshasa. These missions of 10 days are long and short at the same time. They seem long, as we are doing so much in such a short time. It feels as if we have been here several weeks in terms of what we have been able to work on. But it is in many respects objectively also too short, as we need to sort out so many things in order to make our projects in Kinshasa work.
In 2009, we will ask our Government to give support to a programme which will focus, instead of bringing students to Europe, on 2 different interventions of European expert-luthiers in Kinshasa: (1) one shorter of 10 days in June-July (3 expert-luthiers for the repair of pianos, wind instruments and guitars), and (2) another one longer of 3 months (1 expert-luthier for repair and tuning of pianos + maybe an expert-luthier for repair of wind instruments). Also, Music Fund will in 2009 further equip its repair workshop in the music school of Kinshasa, as well as send more music instruments for teaching students and for the orchestra of the school.
Please go for pictures about our 'mission' to Kinshasa to the blog of the luthiers Jacky Walraet and Karel Dedain - for their blog, click here - both guitar-makers and teaching at the Flemish Lutherie School of Puurs (CMB Puurs).
05-01-2009
in the meantime in Gaza
While working in Kinshasa, the bad news from Gaza comes to us. I stayed the last week in contact with our friends and partner there. Yesterday, I found out that the new music school, which our partner, A.M. Al-Qattan Foundation, has founded only last September, has been destroyed. The building was destroyed and some of the music instruments were damaged too.
Such a pity. The teachers were very excited about the progress the children were making the last months, and Music Fund was and is getting prepared to launch a project in support of this music school. We will have to wait and see now whether and when our partner will be able to get this project on again, but are in the meantime in touch with them to see how we can be of help.
difficult, but not impossible
Everything seems difficult here in Kinshasa, because people are so terribly poor. This is our greatest challenge here: We are doing our best to make sure that the project of Music Fund in Kinshasa can end up creating jobs and wealth. This is not easy at all. Because of their lacking sufficient amount of income, many of the teachers of the school are after immediate gains, something we cannot offer them, as training to become an instrument repair technician takes a lot of time (up to 3 years).
For more pictures about this 'mission' to Kinshasa, go to the blog of the luthiers Jacky Walraet and Karel Dedain - for their blog, click here - both guitar-makers and teaching at the Flemish Lutherie School of Puurs (CMB Puurs).
03-01-2009
Music Fund is in Kinshasa again !
Please go for pictures about our 'mission' to Kinshasa to the blog of the luthiers Jacky Walraet and Karel Dedain - for their blog, click here - both guitar-makers and teaching at the Flemish Lutherie School of Puurs (CMB - www.cmbpuurs.be).
This work-period in Kinshasa is all focussed on the repair of guitars: we wish in the future to extend the workshop - which we opened together with the INA (Institut National des Arts) in June 2008 - to the repair of guitars. I have the last days not been able to write for the blog, as I was in bed most of the time. Fortunately, and exceptionally, I have not come alone, but accompagnied by the new coordinator of Music Fund, Messaouda Zaouali. She has taken over a lot of the work I did alone during our previous workvisits.
Augustin Kadiata, the person who followed a 3-month intership in Belgium during the Spring of 2008, has the last months worked in our atelier and repaired already many instruments of the school, as well as started helping out musicians from the city of Kinshasa. Augustin has been engaged by the school and receives on top of his small salary a percentage of the money earned on the reparations of instruments.
The guitar-repair-workshop is very succesful. A group of 5 guitarteachers attended, most quit young and very dynamic and good-spirited. We should absolutely need to also develop this as part of the atelier, and therefor need to set-up training schemes in this field as well.
