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.
