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.
“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.”
“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.”
·
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.
