Music and Music therapy
Edinburgh Direct Aid International has had a connection with music and music therapy
since 1993, when we first worked in Lebanon with Nigel Osborne (retired Prof. of Music,
University of Edinburgh):
EDA I Music program from 2021 onwards
Lebanon:
Since 2013, EDA has provided relief and schooling to many of the 50,000 + Syrian refugees in Arsal, a
village in the hills above the Bekaa valley. In 2021, a music professional, Sahar Matta,
was recruited to lead a weekly program of musical education in Arsal guided by Nigel Osborne and Clea Friend.
Music became part of the curriculum in Arsal in EDA's Scottish Training Centre and the Balsam Centre for children with special needs. Annual children's music festivals were held in Baalbek and Arsal.
In 2024 Israel's nearby attacks on Hezbollah precluded a festival in Arsal, but
but an amazingly successful one was held in Baalbek in June.
Programs were then set up which reached over 1500 of the most traumatised children in Lebanon
Ukraine: Training in Music Therapy
Christmas 2022: Nigel Osb orne completed teaching a course in "Music and Creative arts in the Community"
at the Lviv Catholic and Kharkiv Arts universities. 10 of the students enrolled in the course opted to continue as volunteers, enabling teams to be formed in Lviv and Kharkiv.
Following the contribution of a small boy receiving treatment, who looked underneath a table,
ran back and said, "Mummy it's all right --- There are no monsters here !",
"Monster Operas Kharkiv" was born.
Suitable songs were composed
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