When A Penny Whistle Can Heal: Northern Uganda
Music class in Pabbo IDP camp. Shropshire Music Foundation.
By Manny Jalonschi
Walking through the sprawling Pabbo Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in recent years, you might be surprised by the sound of children singing, or perhaps ukuleles tuning up, or even the happy squeals of penny whistles trying to reach a perfect note. In a community where finding a radio is rare, this is no small feat.
The Shropshire Music Foundation, which was started by a former teacher from Los Angeles, California, provides free music lessons and instruments to children in war-torn areas around the globe. Since 2006, the program, operating as Peace Through Music Uganda, has offered classes at two local schools in Gulu, as well as throughout the Pabbo IDP camp.
“Music goes all the way down in your soul,” says Elizabeth Shropshire, 48, who started the foundation in 1999. The former composer and music teacher used her life savings to buy dozens of instruments and a plane ticket to war-torn Kosovo.
Since 2006, the Shropshire Music Foundation’s work has put the healing power of music into the hands of hundreds of displaced Ugandan children, who survived the horrors of a 20 year insurgency. Peace Through Music Uganda offers ukulele, singing, and penny whistle classes, as well as general music theory. The organization also trains volunteers, who then get to lead their own classes. This helps the music reach more people, and puts young volunteers in a position to lead their own communities.
Denlizo, a volunteer for the program who joined during the Foundation’s first year in Uganda, juggles the stress of war memories with daily problems like raising money for school fees. Denlizo volunteers for the program, teaching classes and recruiting new students.
Music helps Denlizo unwind, especially when the flurry of life’s problems compound themselves. “Instead of doing things that can worsen the situation,” says Denlizo, who has mastered the ukelele, pennywhistle and guitar. “I practice playing instruments.”
A former child soldier that volunteers at the Gulu program, who could not be named, says playing music helps chase away nightmares. ”When I start thinking about the past, I just pick up the ukulele or the pennywhistle and start to play, and those kinds of bad dreams or bad thinking just disappear,’ he said.
Internationally, music therapy has seen a resurgence. In February, the Los Angeles Times reported over 5,000 registered music therapists in the United States alone. Besides helping control the effects of war-related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, music has been used to help fight the symptoms of Alzheimers, autism and even debilitating strokes.
Liz Shropshire with students in a singing class.
The Peace Through Music Uganda program provides an opportunity for many, like Felix, who lost both his parents in the war, to not only practice coping with post-war realities, but also to potentially grow as a leader in his community.
“We want the program in Uganda to eventually be run like our Kosovo program” says Shropshire. “Local Kosovar Youth teach all of the classes, make decisions about what we teach and which areas of Kosovo we expand to, write reports, and have become leaders in their communities.”
The foundation hopes to build on its work in Uganda, with the hopes of eventually building or renting a building to serve as a center of activities. With the Pabbo camp slowly being depopulated as the government encourages people to go home, the program also hopes to purchase a used car to broadly expand their efforts in Gulu. As it stands, the estimated cost of USD $15,000 to purchase a car and import into the country would more than double the expenses of the Foundation’s Uganda operation.
“We don’t spend money because we don’t have money. We don’t have an office in the U.S. or anything like that,” says Shropshire. “We try to get grants, and I do a lot of public speaking about the affects of war on children. Most of our funds are raised by word of mouth.” The foundation also draws donations through its website and its Arizona mailing address.
Despite a budget that currently barely inches over USD $10,000, but supported by a growing musical community, the Shropshire Music Foundation will continue its work throughout Uganda. Experienced at how long the process can be of finding homes for displaced refugees, Shropshire plans on keeping the IDP classes running indefinitely as well, noting, that “in Kosovo, 10 years after the war’s end, there are still people living in camps.”
Bio: Manny Jalonschi is a writer and community activist from Brooklyn, New York.
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What heroic and meaningful work. Wow.
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Perfect post!