Musica de Mis Amigos

Submitted by Sarah_Petta on Sat, 12/13/2008 - 13:31.
Last updated on Thu, 07/02/2009 - 11:32.

Vital Stats

Project Type: project idea

People Impacted: 200
People Involved: 30

The Problem

Arica is the northernmost city in Chile and has a large unemployed and impoverished population. Not many music and arts programs are offered in the city, in fact not many programs for children are offered at all. Underpriveliged kids don't have any opportunity for creative expression. Those who are priviliged don't seem to want to help others with their talents.

Why It's Important

Musica de Mis Amigos(music of my friends) will be a program that offers free music and others arts related lessons. The lessons will be taught by a co-op of teens talented in any musical instrument. During my sophmore year of high school I taught piano lessons to eight students ages twelve and under. At the same time I was involved in a literacy program for underpriviliged kids in my city. At the end of the year I decided to begin a music program for the same kids. The program launched with a five day music camp. After the camp we met every other Saturday to continue music instruction. Before the program could really take of however my famiy moved to Arica, Chile. Musica de Mis Amigos will follow the same ideas as my first program, teen teachers and a fun and wholesome atmosphere for the kids. I was amazed by the results of the first program. Kids who had never had the opportunity to experence the joys of music loved their new-found capabilities.

The Plan Of Action

Of course, every music program requires musical instruments. Our primary intruments will be piano, guitar, and flute. Art supplies will also be needed for art classes. The curriculum I previously used will work it will just need to be translated into spanish. A building will need to be rented for the lessons to take place. Rent is relatively cheap here and with the proper donations will be easily paid. The building will need to be located in the target neigborhood.

How Can Others Get Involved?

Link:

Previoulsy I had instrusments, art supplies, and a building at my disposal. Now I'm starting from scratch. Community involvement is going to be my biggest need. I will only be here fr 2-3 years, until I go to college. I hope to inspire the community to keepthe center going long after I leave. Any help and contacts from the United States/Canada is also very welcome though.

Project Updates

07/2/09

Update: It has been really hard getting this project started. I began hoping to find a local church that would house the project. I spoke to churches but the only response I could get was "That sounds nice." After I was unable to work out of church I began looking for orphanages that might like a music program. I had heard that there were several orphanages in the area and began asking for information. Even people who said they had visited the orphanages were unable to give me addresses or phone numbers. I finally was given the name of an orphanage. To find the orphanage I had to get a cab driver who knew where it was. The orphanage turned out to be a school for special needs children. The school, COANIL, doesn't have a real music teacher and they were very excited to have me. Even though I told them I have no experience with special needs children we set a date and time. When I arrived to teach the first day they seemed incredibly surprised, they didn't think that I would show up. I have started teaching fifteen kids once a week and I hope to start teaching more children. I'm also teaching the woman who had been doing the music instruction how to teach more effectively. The kids are learning to use hand bells. Lots of the kids have been asking to be taught how to play guitar so I hope to begin basic guitar instruction.

Final Grant Update

07/20/09

Sarah Petta

Number of people in the organization: The volunteers include myself and several teachers so about 5. I have been teaching 20-35 kids.
Number of people impacted: The entire school is being impacted so around 100 people.
Describe the impact the grant had: I would not have been able to purchase instruments without the grant. I'm teaching a lot of kids and need a lot of instruments. Without the grant I wouldn't have had the recources to begin the project.
Project highlights: 1. The kids are great, they learn really fast and are so excited. 2. I missed a few weeks because I went to the states for a few weeks. When I returned to teaching everyone was so excited to begin learning more. 3. I began teaching very slowly because the kids hadn't had any prior music training. To my surprise I began getting requests for different instruments. I had planned on only teaching hand bells for a while but I am now teaching guitar and flute as well.
How did the project unfold and develop? The orginal plan for Musica de Mis Amigos was to find a church or other organization that would host a program to teach music to neighborhood kids. After I was unable to find a church that would agree to help I began looking for orphanages that I could begin teaching music at. My search led me to COANIL, a school for disabled children. I have begun teaching a music class once a week at the school to twenty or more children. In addition to teaching the kids I am teaching one of the teachers how to teach music. The kids really enjoy the class and more kids join us each week. The teachers at the school have really been encouraged by the fact that I show up. When I showed up the first day they were really surprised, even though I told them I was coming they didn't expect that I would show up.