Category: Psychosocial Music Programme
Music & Resilience Sicily Tour 2023
Marco, Chiara and Alberto have just returned from a mini-tour of Sicily to deliver three presentations of Music & Resilience at some local venues: 20 October at the Associazione Finestre sul Mondo (Marsala). Salvatore Inguì of Finestre sul Mondo and the Libera Orchestra Popolare organised the meeting. 21 October at the Conservatorio 'A. Scarlatti' in Palermo, we gave a presentation open to students and citizens, with some more technical details on the musical and psychosocial nature of the work we do with our Palestinian friends. Prof. Rosa Alba Gambino, lecturer in music pedagogy, introduced the topic of Community Music, while [...]
M&R activities summer 2023
The final concert is starting! The M&R team has just completed its activities for Summer 2023, which took place from 7 to 19 August. This year the team (consisting of a total of 17 people) worked separately in the first week, and then came together in Baalbek for Summer Camp in the second week, which culminated in the final concert on Saturday 19. During the first week, Community Music work was carried out in the camps of Beddawi (Tripoli) and Mar Elias (Beirut); in the latter, we began a collaboration with Al Kamandjati, a long-standing Palestinian association that has always [...]
Preparations for M&R activities 2023
Marco and Alberto have just returned from a field visit to Lebanon to define the activities for this August. Through a series of meetings it was decided to involve the students in a Summer Camp with a final concert, similar to last year, and also to continue with the psychosocial activity in Wavel camp (in Baalbek). M&R has a new local coordinator, Ahmad, with whom the whole team is looking forward to working together! On the last day of their stay, Marco and Alberto joined Ahmad in a music day at the Beddawi centre (in Tarablus), which involved students from [...]
Preparations for the Summer Camp 2022
Prima Materia is ready to go with the new Summer Program after two years of COVID-induced prohibitions. Two members of our team (Deborah & Alberto) are completing the field visit to all the centers involved in Music & Resilience for planning details and also training where possible. We were never let alone by our dear friend and colleague Mohammad Orabi who is now General Project Coordinator for Assumoud (our boss! thank you Mohammad for doing a great job). We also had important strategic meetings with the Assumoud management and our trusted sponsor Taawon, whom we thank as always for its [...]
Psychosocial activities and teachers training in Baalbek
For the last part of this year's activities in Lebanon of the Music & Resilience project, Alberto and Chiara worked three days in the El Jalil refugee camp in Baalbek, in the Bekaa valley. Music & Resilience was the first musical project in this camp, and it started its activities here in 2017: during these years, we have brought some musical instruments (mainly pitched and unpitched percussions), carried out musical psychosocial activities for large groups of children (about 50 every year) and offered training for the staff of the Assumoud center which hosts both us and the activities. This year [...]
Lebanon, August 2021
singing games Community Music rehearsals vocal awareness excercise rhythmic games with frisbees Despite extremely hard life conditions here in Lebanon, within the context of a constantly worsening economic situation, THE MUSIC MUST GO ON! Prima Materia is leading a 3-week program of follow-up for music therapy, community music and psychosocial music support, together with Assumoud, in the centres located in Beirut, Saida and Baalbek. The photos show workshops in the Eine Elhilweh Assumoud centre with 50 students, some of whom are now working as peer-to-peer teachers for the younger children. The socio-economic context - the entire country is without electricity [...]
“Music and Resilience” article preview!
We are delighted to present the preview of the peer-reviewed article, "Adjusting the Pitch" written by key members of the M&R project team, Deborah Parker, Dario Gentili, Henry Brown and Alberto Balducci, which has been accepted by the international journal Voices, for publication in July 2021. Structured as an ethnographic exploration of action learning, the article narrates and analyses the project's developments and transformations during its first 8 years, considering both its successes and challenges. "Voices" are given to the Palestinian, Italian and Lebanese children, students, teachers and healthcare professionals involved, through both their words within the text and the [...]
Finally back to Lebanon!
After 9 months of waiting and hoping, at last it is possible to travel to Lebanon again. From 11th to 21st December 2020, with the support of Montespertoli council and Città Metropolitana Firenze, and on behalf of the PM M&R coordination team, Deborah Parker will lead a 10-day program of monitoring, evaluation, training and supervision, together with Assumoud, in all the localities where project actions take place: Beirut, Beddawi, Saida and Baalbek. During these months of covid restrictions, with no group activities in the Assumoud centres, PM has offered distance support, including online supervision for the music therapy team. The [...]
Overview of activities M&R 18-19 – New video online
The video presentation of the Music and Resilience 2018-19 project is online: an overview of the activities we have done during the eighth year of the project. The activities took place in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon in collaboration with the local partner Beit Atfal Assumoud and thanks to the support of Taawon Lebanon. Video by Dario Gentili.
Planning for 2020
PM coordinator Deborah Parker is completing a 10-day visit to Assumoud and the centers where M&R is active, for follow-up, monitoring and planning meetings for 2020. Unfortunately, the road closures caused by the civil demonstrations against political corruption have made travelling up North to Beddawi center impossible, but all other scheduled meetings, in Baalbek, Beirut and Saida were able to take place. The project is "healthy and kicking"; it's tendencies towards growth continue to challenge us to maintain quality and ensure sustainability. On this last point, a very fruitful meeting was held with Welfare Association Lebanon, main sponsor of M&R, [...]
