Goodbye MPM :(

Dear MPM supporters and friends.

 

 

I am sorry to be writing this letter to break the news that after nine years of providing music, and later art, therapy to children and young people in Gulu, MPM is now closing and will no longer be a registered Community-Based Organisation (CBO) in Uganda.

 

MPM was founded in 2008 when I went to Gulu as a newly qualified Music Therapist to offer music therapy to children in SOS Children’s Village, Gulu.  The community was emerging from a 25-year civil war in which countless tens of thousands of people were abducted, abused, maimed, killed and displaced.  The children in the orphanage had seen horrendous things and were trying to return to some semblance of normal.  MPM, which consisted at the time of myself and a Dutch colleague, Jantina Bijpost, ran four music therapy groups during the week and saw a transformation, if only for the hour we were with them, as the children lit up and lost themselves to the power that is making music together.

 

As time went on local establishments heard about music therapy and MPM was invited to work in a special needs unit at a local primary school, a secondary boarding school for children affected by the war, a rural primary school with a high number of children with behavioural problems, a juvenile remand home and a school for deaf children.  I had had no idea of how the work of MPM would evolve and had no plans as to how long I would stay in Gulu during that year of 2008.  I came across a teacher, Betty Acen, who was trained by Jantina and whom I supervised to carry on the music therapy work.  Betty worked alone for the next two years with remote supervision and my occasional visits plus some music therapy volunteers training in the UK and US.  In 2011 it became known to me that a Ugandan art therapist friend, Vincent, was free for work, I asked if he would be interested in widening the scope of MPM to include art as well as music therapy.  He joined MPM and became an asset to the growing team, extending the work in the remand home and incorporating art and discussions.

 

Around the same time Betty had to leave MPM to return to her home in eastern Uganda.  An advert was put out on the radio and Layet Florence came upon the advert and introduced herself as someone who had taken part in an MPM training course in 2008, which Jantina and I had led in a secondary boarding school for children affected by the war.  She had always remembered the training and remained interested in music therapy, and had subsequently trained as a teacher.  Florence joined Vincent after a short training and subsequent supervision and the music/art therapy continued in the various institutions around Gulu.

 

I lived in western Uganda during 2011-2014 and was able to visit Gulu annually and see the good work that MPM was doing.  The feedback from the remand home was particularly encouraging, where the young people awaiting their trials were able to work through their life-decisions so far through art and music therapy and try to find ways of putting their lives back on track to make something positive out of having been in the remand home.  The management team of the remand home was really pleased with MPM’s services, especially considering that the home is so underfunded by local government.  The same was said about art and music therapy with children in the special needs unit where the teachers were despondent and down-trodden by the apparent lack of support; the staff were pleased to have special attention for the children, despite the fact that it was a difficult place to work it was quite rewarding for MPM therapists whenever there were moments of connection with the children.

 

In 2013 MPM was asked by Music as Therapy International (MasT) to assist them with their training program in Cyangugu, Rwanda, as teachers, therapists and other service providers brought music therapy to their schools and care homes.  Vincent and I met with MasT’s UK volunteers and took part in their training seminars, offering our knowledge and experience of working as music/art therapists in East Africa.

 

However, considering I no longer live in Uganda and find it difficult to supervise and support the Ugandan MPM therapists, and considering the salaries of the MPM staff and other costs related to running MPM such as art and music resources, amongst other issues related to support that MPM therapists were getting from the places in which they worked, I came to the conclusion that nine years of running MPM in Gulu would have to come to an end.  During these nine years I have considered partnering with other international music therapy charities but none seemed to offer what was necessary for the type of work that needed to be done in Gulu.  Avenues of continuing MPM seemed closed so Vincent and Florence were given six months’ notice and I wish them every success for the future.

 

I want to thank you for your support over the years whether financial or moral, for helping to provide emotional support to countless young people in northern Uganda during a transitional time in their lives and in the life of their community.

Latest news from MPM, Gulu. June 2015

Dear Friends and Supporters.

I have received my termly report from Florence Layet, MPM’s music therapist in Gulu, and I would like to share her thoughts and comments with you to show you how positive MPM’s work in Gulu is.  It’s pretty amazing that MPM works on a shoe-string budget but is being so influential in children’s lives and also in the professional lives of the teachers and carers who work with the children, changing their often negative views of the children they work with and helping them to see value in their work.

The Remand home is where teenagers go when they have done something wrong (like a prison for young offenders) and takes people from all over northern Uganda, an area about two times the size of England.

Achievements:

“music as therapy has given chance for the children to open up their problems enabling me to give counselling and guidance”

“Music has made them build self-confidence even those with different languages”

“Music has also inspired them and made them understand that recovery from psychological trauma and stress is very important for one to rebuild hope and the sense of empowerment needed to gain and regain control of one’s physical, mental and emotional life.”

“They have also been inspired by music to not wait for things on a silver plate i.e. they always organize themselves for sessions and make it happen at whatever time they feel they need to relax, chase boredom, create happiness and joy and to avoid minds from negative thinking”

Challenges:

“Language barriers with children who come from the whole of the north of Uganda and speak different local languages or dialects.

Behaviour is a problem because the children can be manipulative or provocative.

Last term some young people broke out of the home and stole a guard’s motorbike.  These young people were the ones who rallied all the others and encouraged them to participate in music and art therapy so we are feeling their loss.”

 

PRISON PRIMARY SCHOOL – not a school for prisoners but a school with a special needs department next to a prison.

“Apio was so vulgar in her languages before but now she can respect and discipline her words to others.  She always runs to welcome me simply because she has picked much interests in musical activities e.g. song practice, gymnastic that we now do once every week which has really changed her character in that she can take turns, socialize and play with friends, share and accept advice and even follow instructions including counselling and guidance.”

“Ojok is very shy and keeps laughing/ smiling all the time. He used not to say a word but due to my efforts in creating activities that helps one to vocalize, like making musical sounds he has now been helped to say some few words”

“Music has done great for Peter in that it has helped shape his jumpy, rough and harming life styles. He now shows his anger on the drums when he is emotional and feels angry.”

“It has been a great joy working with special needs children and to see some change or improvement but it has not been very easy handling them at all.”

(Names changed)

LAROO SCHOOL  - a school for children with hearing impairments that uses sign language

“Music has helped those with problems in sign language to learn faster and it has also been amazing self-esteem booster for the shy children.”

“Music has strengthened these children to express themselves and their feelings freely to me and has also made them to disclose secrets between them that are really so dangerous for their age that even their own daily classroom teachers are not aware of it.”

CUBU PRIMARY SCHOOL – a rural school in an area that was badly hit by the rebels during the war.

Challenges:

The children are often disobedient, shouting over us and each other, like to take revenge or to fight and are aggressive.  They are resistant to change and do not like to learn.  We don’t have enough confidentiality because other children from other disorganized classes come and look through the window at what we are doing.  When it rains we find it difficult to get to Cubu Primary because the road is of such bad condition.

 

CONCLUSION

“In conclusion MPM’s work which is therapeutic is changing lots of lives in Gulu every year and the most important part of it is that we have been able to practice in the best way that suits the situation of the children we are working with in music therapy, which in our observation, has helped us to help them get the most out of their lives, like their peers.”

 

MPM IS GETTING LOW ON FUNDS BUT WOULD LOVE TO CONTINUE THE GREAT WORK THAT IS BEING DONE BY FLORENCE AND VINCE (art therapist) SO PLEASE SUPPORT THIS WORK WITH A DONATION THAT GOES DIRECTLY TOWARDS THEIR SALARIES AND MATERIALS USED IN THE WORK.

Contact Bethan on bethano@yahoo.com for details of how to donate or set up a standing order.

Master's Thesis link

Please see the following link for an interesting article about Music for Peaceful Minds, its volunteers and their thoughts on community music therapy based on a Master's Thesis that an MPM volunteer, Ana Navarro, wrote recently:
https://voices.no/index.php/voices/article/view/769/676

Newsletter No. 38!

October 2014

Hello MPM supporters!

I start by thanking two people who have supported MPM this year.  First of all, a student from Kyambogo University in Kampala, Akoli Christine, requested to do her internship with MPM in Gulu.  Christine added energy and new ideas to the work, which is always needed for a profession whose workers often feel very isolated in Uganda (I know of only a handful of music therapists here).  I would like to thank her for her interest and time and wish her well with the remainder of her studies. 

Secondly, a former MPM volunteer music therapist from Spain, Ana Navarro (volunteered in 2011) came under her own steam to re-visit Gulu and other parts of Uganda.  She offered wonderful supervision and ideas to Vince and Florence who truly appreciated her visit and I also thank her for her commitment to MPM. 

MPM Staff

Layet Florence, who joined MPM at the start of the academic year (February 2014) is flourishing as MPM’s music therapist.  She had a brief training with me back in February and works alongside Vince in various places around Gulu.  Currently these include a school for the deaf, a school for children with special needs, a rural mainstream school with children suffering second-generation trauma and behavioural difficulties and a home for young offenders.  Ana added to her training while she was visiting and reported that Florence is doing very good work that is energizing and inspiring the children with whom she works.  Vince is continuing to work with vigour, paying particular attention to the psychological needs of the children.

 Details of the work:

I recently received reports from Vince, MPM’s art therapist, and Florence, MPM’s new music therapist in Gulu about their work last term.  I want to show some extracts here as examples of the wonderful work they are doing for some of the most marginalized people in Gulu:

 Cubu School (mainstream rural primary school badly affected by the rebel war)

“This school is the furthest among our service areas where we go twice a week with primary 2 and primary 3 classes in liaison with their class teachers.  In this government school […] we handle mostly children with secondary trauma and pick out those with identified and recommended psychological problems who need special attention.  The most common problems are: developmental delay and problems with motor development; trouble concentrating; hypersensitivity and exaggerated startle disorders [some of these problems are results of trauma].  This is making academic and social performance very poor compared to children from other parts of Uganda not affected by war (which lasted for over 28 years).  One of the boys who was considered weak has been promoted to the next class since we started working and talking to him which clearly signifies the relevance of music and art therapy in this school with a population of 670 pupils.” 

Prisons Primary School (for children with special needs)

A note about one particular boy to explain why music and art therapy is helpful in this setting:

“He sits in the back and he is very quiet staring into space without words; you wouldn’t easily be able to notice that he goes through a series of psychological breakdowns which is the reason why we try to use music and art to try making him open his doors and windows to let us in.”

 

Remand Home (home for youth offenders as they await trial or are fulfilling their sentence)

“In our second-to-last activity “When I leave Prison” which took place on Tuesday in our usual class with 35 boys and one girl, Florence started with music and dance while we introduced Ana to the group.  Music took about 1 ½ hours because the kids were very excited to be learning new skills from an outsider.  We had about 10 minutes’ break in between to reflect and meditate while we prepared for the art session.  The introduction of the theme brought in a lot of calm and quiet with a changed mood while they sit at desks with their backs facing the wall while others preferred sitting on the floor isolating themselves from the rest of the group.  They were finally interacting with the work after about 10 minutes and had started drawing from revenge, religion, family, reforms, education, future and stigma.  They drew themselves outside the boundaries of their compositions while others avoided including themselves in their drawings completely which, psychologically, could mean that one is living with fear of being identified by the community as a bad person, or that one does not want to be a part of them or that they will not repeat what is happening in the drawing.  This is a sign of loss of hope and dignity that MPM has to help reconstruct through music and art counselling.”

 

MPM has to pay two salaries of £120 each month and has extra expenses of providing art and music materials every term.  If you are willing to contribute a one-off donation or become a monthly supporter, please get in touch with me to find out how (either at my normal email address or at musicforpeacefulminds@yahoo.co.uk).  Thank you to everyone who has contributed, and especially to the current monthly supporters for your support.  You can visit http://musicforpeacefulminds.blogspot.com for more background information and pictures.

 For those who pray:

·       Praise God for the continued interest of MPM’s supporters who are valuable additions to the MPM team.

·       Please pray for God to continually affect the children’s lives, guiding them and helping them to grow into the people He wants them to be.

Newsletter 37

Newsletter No. 37! (from Gulu)

February 2014

 

Hello MPM supporters!

I am just back from Gulu where I went (with Gareth and the boys) to run a parents’ workshop at the deaf unit of Laroo Primary School.  I also began the training of Layet Florence who is MPM’s new Music Counselor.  Vince is running MPM very well and is not only on top of the work but constantly looking for new avenues to explore.

 

The workshop first: There was a lot of not knowing about this workshop and it was with nervousness that I handed over £100 to Vince to go shopping for the lunch that must be provided if we are to hold a function in Uganda that is taken seriously.  The day should have begun at 8am but finally at 11.30 we began the lengthy introductions of all the ‘big’ men and women who were there.  I was very impressed by the people who had shown up: the director of an NGO for disabilities (himself deaf) and the PTA chairperson amongst others.  There were around 30 adults and 30-40 children, which is a miracle in itself considering that the school said it had tried to have parents meetings before and the first time one parent showed up and the second time no one came!

 

Vincent and I gave talks about how music and art can help deaf people to express themselves and help them in their academic work too.  We answered questions from concerned parents who were finding it very tough raising their kids, some of whom are violent or angry towards the family and neighbours.  We discussed how, since talking doesn’t help, communicating via any means –be it playing, acting, drawing, dancing – will help to show the child their value and worth within the family and help them to reduce their anger and violent outbursts.  One father was at his wits end as his daughter refused to talk to her mother or siblings and the father was the only one the daughter would try to communicate with.  He was thankful by the end of the workshop that he had some new ideas to try to communicate with her and had some answers as to why she was so angry.

 

On to Florence.  She is our new MPM Music Counselor in Gulu working alongside Vincent.  It turns out that she had been present at one of MPM’s training days in Hope North School two hours out of Gulu back in 2008!  Then in 2013 she heard the advert on the radio for the position of Music Counselor and applied!  She has a lot of energy and is bright, willing to learn and has the potential to be a very good asset to MPM.

 

The work that Vince and Florence are now doing in Gulu looks very different to how it all started.  Firstly, the groups are much bigger than they used to be as small group work is not always possible in the places MPM works due to various factors (anyone with an academic interest in Community Music Therapy?  I’m writing a paper about it with reference to MPM!)  Secondly there are now two counselors and consequently the children spend half of their sessions quietly drawing as well as dancing around playing instruments!  But there is no doubt that in a place such as Uganda where school is about learning by rote and repeating things that they might not understand, the creativity that MPM is bringing to the institutions is valuable and welcomed.

 

 

If you are willing to contribute a one-off donation or become a monthly supporter, please get in touch with me to find out how (either at my normal email address or at musicforpeacefulminds@yahoo.co.uk).  Thank you to everyone who has contributed, and especially to the current monthly supporters for your support.  You can visit http://musicforpeacefulminds.blogspot.com for more background information and pictures.

 

For those who pray:

·       Praise God for finding Florence who seems to be a good addition to the MPM team.

·       Praise God for safe journeys to and from Gulu – the road is terrible now and we saw four overturned lorries on route.

·       Please pray for God to continually affect the children’s lives, guiding them and helping them to grow into the people He wants them to be.

Newsletter No 36 - Rwanda!

Newsletter No. 36! (from Kasese)

September 2013

 

Hello MPM supporters!  I hope this newsletter finds you well.

It’s been an exciting month for MPM.  Music as Therapy International invited me and Vince to go to Rwanda to help them think about how to make the music therapy program they already have there more sustainable.  After a long battle with the Ugandan Immigration we got a special pass (work permits still being processed after seven months!) and were able to cross the border to drive all the way across Rwanda to Kamembe in the south west.  From here we could see across the beautiful Lake Kivu to Congo and we were a stone’s throw away from Burundi.  It was two days’ drive from south west Uganda and three days’ journey for Vince from Gulu but well worth it because we learned as much as we offered.

 

Music as Therapy International have had a relationship with two special needs centres in Cyangugu for some years now and are looking how to move ahead.  Since MPM is still running successfully after almost six years Vince and I were able to offer some words of advice as much including what not  to do as much as how to do things well!  In exchange we observed (and took part in) two ‘family days’ where parents were invited to the schools and offered advice on how to interact and communicate with their disabled children and the parents were able to ask questions and to offer their concerns.  Vince and I later discussed how this might work in Uganda (although Uganda is vastly less organized so it may take some time!) with the special needs schools we work in there.  The plan would be to offer a parents’ support day in Laroo Addra (the deaf unit) and Prison Primary (the special needs unit) to encourage the parents to keep working hard getting their children to school, to advise other parents with disabled children to get the support they need and not to hide them away and to teach them what music and art therapy are doing for their children and why it is important.

 

Meanwhile Vince continues to work alone in Gulu because we have not had any suitable musicians come forward for the job of music counselor yet.  A radio advert will go out this week so hopefully we will get some applications so someone can start in the new school year, next February.  Vince is still working in all the usual places but most of his time is taken up with the Remand Home because the staff there treat him as though he works there: he has become part of the furniture!  He is working through some very important topics with the young people, helping them to realize their mistakes that led them to be arrested and encouraging them to find ways of changing their behavior so that when they get out they will not be arrested again.  He also does sessions with themes of self-discovery, self-expression and how to live peacefully with others in the home.  He is currently writing a case-study about one of his sessions so you will be able to read that soon.

 

Sometimes he gets disheartened by his work: a girl in the special needs unit became pregnant and no one knows details of this and there are allegations of bad conduct from a head teacher at another place.  He is constantly being asked for things that he just should not have to provide like soap for the remand home that should be funded by the government.  Things like this can really drain him and that’s without even thinking about the children’s personal issues that he discovers through his therapeutic work.  But it just goes to show that his work is important and necessary in Gulu.

 

In Uganda if you have a meeting that people are expected to attend, it is normal and polite to offer lunch.  Therefore there will be a certain degree of added cost for the family days that we plan to hold.  In light of this, if you are willing to contribute a one-off donation or become a monthly supporter, please get in touch with me to find out how (either at my normal email address or at musicforpeacefulminds@yahoo.co.uk).  Thank you to everyone who has contributed, and especially to the current monthly supporters for your support.  You can visit http://musicforpeacefulminds.blogspot.com for more background information and pictures.

 

For those who pray:

·       Please pray for a suitable musician to join the MPM team as a music counselor.  The logistics of hiring someone are difficult too, since I live two days drive away from Gulu.

·       Praise God for the opportunity to work with Music as Therapy and to share ideas and problems.

MPM in Rwanda

Dear All.
I am writing a short letter now to tell you that I have been asked by Music as Therapy International http://www.musicastherapy.org/ to go to Kamembe, south west Rwanda, to help them as they try to find a way of offering music therapy services to people in that area.  They have already been working in Rwanda for some time (see their website above for more precise details) but are now thinking about changing the way they work there.
Vince is accompanying me and I am going en famille with my two boys and live-in nanny (Gareth, my wonderful husband!) since Jonah is still too young to be without mum at the moment.
I will write more when I get back about how it went.

In the meantime, I will write that unfortunately MPM has still not managed to find a musician to fulfil the requirements of the music therapist post in Gulu so Vince has been holding the fort with art and other creative ways of working with children such as dance and role-play.  There was one applicant for the job but she was not a musician.  Although Betty was also not a musician, MPM has moved on since 2008 and now Vince and I decided that the role of music counsellor should go to a talented musician.  If we go beyond a year without filling the role we may look at this specification again since a lot of the work that happens with MPM is creative work that includes music rather than solely music in itself.  But in the meantime we are still being picky!

Vince has been working in the same places as before (see previous newsletter) and after I spend three days with him in Rwanda I will chat with him and find out the details in order to write a newsletter on our return.

I look forward to filling you in on lots of exciting news when I get back!

Bethan

For people who pray please pray firstly for Vince to be able to travel across the border with not hassle as he doesn't have a passport but instead has other forms of ID and although he believes he will be able to travel there are always people who will try to make life difficult.  Also please pray urgently for a musician to join MPM in Gulu as not only is it lonely for Vince to work alone but Music for Peaceful Minds cannot be so without music!