Music Connects and Brass for Africa are partnering to create brighter futures through music for disadvantaged children and young people in the refugee settlement of BidiBidi, Northern Uganda.
The Music Connects Initiative and Brass for Africa are partnering to bring a stage, a recording studio, instruments and a small cinema to BidiBidi – one of the world’s largest refugee settlements located in Northern Uganda. It is home to over 240,000 refugees, many of whom have fled the civil war in South Sudan. Women and children make up approximately 86% of the population and the vast majority are out of work and rely on food aid (UN). The German Foreign Office provided financial support to design, develop and produce the prototype of a fully equipped mobile multimedia ‘Music Lab’. Travelling through the vast BidiBidi region, the Lab Uganda truck will aim to reach as many refugees as possible.
Music Connects is a German non-profit organisation comprised of musicians and business people who, with the financial support of Germany´s Federal Foreign Office, have developed and manufactured a prototype of a mobile multimedia music laboratory: a fully equipped truck. A music lab on wheels! Having visited BidiBidi in 2019 the Music Connects team identified untapped and unheard musical talent and have aimed to provide a facility that will offer an opportunity for nurturing, recording and publishing this talent. Geoffroy Schied, Music Connects, says:“On our two visits to Bidibidi, we were overwhelmed by the creative energy of the young people. They are dreaming of expressing themselves and reaching out not only to the world but to their neighbours in this vast settlement. With our mobile LAB, we hope to reach many of them, and give them a chance to work together and be heard”.
Brass for Africa is an award-winning charity that delivers music education with an innovative and tailored life-skills curriculum to extremely disadvantaged children and young people across Uganda, Rwanda and Liberia. Brass for Africa is delighted to have been selected by Music Connects as the implementing partner for Lab Uganda. As well as ensuring optimum utilisation of the Lab, Brass for Africa will be implementing weekly Music Education and Life-Skills Training sessions for children and young people living in BidiBidi, as well as regular workshops and special community events across the settlement.
Jim Trott MBE, Executive Director of Brass for Africa, says: “We have long been in admiration of Uganda’s and the UNHCR’s refugee response and feel honoured to now be able to play our part too. Not only will Lab Uganda and the Community Music programmes help nurture talent and release potential but through the incredibly powerful tool of music we can address many other social and personal issues and pressures that young people are facing in BidiBidi. We are very excited to be a part of this groundbreaking project”
The project will start in October 2021. For more information on Music Connects visit www.musicconnects.world.
Supporters:
Auswärtiges Amt I German Foreign office
GIZ
UNHCR
Gasteig Munich
Sponsors:
DHL
ALLIANZ
Contact:
MUSIC CONNECTS
Elisabeth Baumgartner: Elisabeth.baumgartner@musicconnects.world
Brass for Africa
Andrea Berbegal: andrea@brassforafrica.org
