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Radio Hayah spoke with Ahmad Al Azza from Sounds of Palestine.
Sounds of Palestine is a community music project inspired and based on the concept of El Sistema in Venezuela. This concept uses music education as a medium to achieve long term social change for the children and families involved and has proven to be successful in more than 60 countries all over the world. Radio Hayah spoke with Ahmad Al Azza from Sounds of Palestine to find out more.
Radio Hayah : What is Sounds of Palestine?
Ahmad: Sounds of Palestine is a programme within a Swiss organisation located in Bethlehem. Mainly our headquarters is in Beit Sahour and Ramallah. Sounds of Palestine is community music. We mix between teaching music and bringing a social worker to work with our Palestinian kids.
Radio Hayah: When were you started and why were you started?
Ahmad: We started in 2011 to give the Palestinian children a chance to have different activities in their life. Especially our target group comes from the disadvantaged children and families, mainly from Palestinian refugee camps, from villages and from poor families.
Radio Hayah : Were you originally located in the refugee camps?
Ahmad: We were functioning from one of the refugee camps, but we had to move after a couple of years because we had a bigger number. We also needed a safe location for the children, since we want to give them a different experience in life. They live under the Israel occupation all the time, so they need some kind, nice and safe location. We found a good safe location in the middle of the city.
Radio Hayah : What is the aim of your organisation?
Ahmad: The aim of the organisation is to create and produce as much as we can by Palestinian musicians, because we believe that music makes people perceive life and live in a better way.
Radio Hayah : Are there many good Palestinian musicians?
Ahmad: There are good Palestinian musicians, but unfortunately we don't have many professional Palestinian musicians because music is not a part of our daily life. Those who learn music learn it as an extra thing and they come from a family who can afford that. Our target group are families who cannot teach their children music, so we offer to teach them for free.
Radio Hayah : Is this a place for a child to come and learn how to play an instrument?
Ahmad: This is exactly what we give the child. We give the child the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument and we teach him the theory and give him different activities. We have several instruments; we have cello, double bass, violin, percussion, clarinet and recorder. We give music theory and we give folk law dance and we give extra activities like gardening sometimes.
Radio Hayah : Do they give themselves a few years to learn these instruments?
Ahmad: We start with children from six years old and we continue with them. The children we take have to be in the first grade, six years old, then every year they finish a music academic year with us. We believe in 10 years, once they are in high school, they will be able to apply and be accepted with any European music university. So we are preparing them to be professional musicians and they will pass the audition in the future.
Radio Hayah: How many children attend?
Ahmad: We have 110 children.
Radio Hayah : How many children have you had coming through the doors?
Ahmad: We have lots of requests, but our capacity is not more than 110. Actually our capacity is 100, but we had pressure and we took 10 children extra. We are like a snowball, every year we add another class, so when we started in 2011 and 12 we started with first graders and the next year we had first graders and second graders. Then the third year we have first, second and third and now we have first, second, third and fourth. We also work with kindergartens.
Radio Hayah : Do you work with children that have special needs as well?
Ahmad: Yes, since we are community music we do not only take on the skilful children, but also we take the children that have different problems like trauma or autism. As long as he could develop himself within years we keep him, unless this situation needs very special treatment. We don't give up easily and so far it didn't happen, but yes we do work with special needs.
Radio Hayah : Is music a good therapy for them?
Ahmad: Music is a great therapy for them. We have done some research with one of the universities, in comparison between children in the same classroom, those who are attending the music lessons and those who are not. We found out that those who are attending the music lessons have become better in focusing and concentrating; they have better marks and they have a better attitude and behaviour in treating other classmates.
Radio Hayah: So you are really changing the whole of the child?
Ahmad: To tell you the truth, yes. Especially you could see those children who come from a hard background in their families, especially if they had a loss of their families and stuff, music lets them behave much better.
Radio Hayah : Does playing a musical instrument increase their self-confidence?
Ahmad: It does. We do several performances a year, so when you give the child a chance to go on theatre and auditorium and perform in front of hundreds of people, this will increase the self-confidence, because he goes and does something in front of everyone.
Radio Hayah : Do you get the chance to travel with the kids?
Ahmad: So far not and so far it is very hard to travel. I don't recommend myself to take nine year olds to travel, because the oldest kids we have are 10 years old. It's a big responsibility to let them go on the aeroplane. What if someone gets sick? It is not an easy thing. Also, we never received an invitation to take them abroad, but I guess even if we received an invitation we cannot do it.
Radio Hayah : Do they get the chance to travel around Palestine?
Ahmad: Yes we did travel to different cities in Palestine. We went to Ramallah, we went to the north where we had a performance, and we went to different cities like Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.
Radio Hayah : And you are providing food for some of the kids as well, with nutrition, aren't you?
Ahmad: We provide food for everyone, because we bring them from schools, so we start with food. We give them a very good homemade food, healthy and warm. We also offer them fruit, like bananas. We don't offer them any artificial things with sugar, because this will affect their behaviour and will make them hyperactive, so we only use nutritious and natural food.
Radio Hayah : How do the kids feel about coming to Sounds of Palestine?
Ahmad: To tell you the truth, the commitment of children is amazing. They are committed to the time, because it is something they choose. It is not like the school where the parents send them, or force them to go, but the music lesson is something the child chooses himself.
Radio Hayah : What is the most favourite instrument that the kids like to play?
Ahmad: To tell you the truth we give the kids the chance to choose amongst all the instruments, by bringing our musicians and playing the same piece in front of them with cello, double bass, percussion, violin and clarinet. Then we distribute coloured papers with the shape of the instrument and each child will colour the instrument that he likes after he watches all the instruments. Mainly there is no favourite, they just evenly distribute themselves.
Radio Hayah: What is it like for you to sit and listen to them playing?
Ahmad: It is really beautiful and it gives you a motive in life. It is a positive approach, especially if you live in Palestine where the situation is not easy for anyone. So to see children playing music it is something you really enjoy.
Radio Hayah : What do you want to see for some of these kids in the future from Sounds of Palestine?
Ahmad: I would like to see successful kids in different aspects; those who will continue to choose music as a career, I believe they will be successful, but those who use it as a strong hobby, they will be doing something else. I am very much optimistic to see successful kids in their life with their music skills in their pocket as well.
Radio Hayah : Are you making a difference in the community?
Ahmad: I believe we are doing this, but it is hard now to sense it, but in a couple of years you will see it.
Radio Hayah : Why do you do what you do?
Ahmad: Because we believe that music makes people better.
Radio Hayah : What is your prayer for the children that are coming here and learning the instruments?
Ahmad: We would like to give them an opportunity that we ourselves didn't get in the past. Our families could not afford to let us learn. I would like to thank the original organisation who are supporting this, which is from Switzerland.
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