'Everything came together on the last day of the training'
(trainer Marijn Korff de Gidts’ story)
This training was the second Sounds of Change training (Level 2) in Caïro.The group worked with Lucas and Maite for the first time in July and this was a continuation of the process. For me, this week was a lesson in listening, watching, connecting to what the group needs and to respond in the moment. Maite is great in this way of working, typical for Sounds of Change, and this approach works really well in this environment.
In this huge and poor neighbourhood of Caïro, El Ezba, there is only one school for the million people that live here. I underestimated the poverty and limited resources of the people here (more than half of the people in Cairo live below the poverty line) and this makes the need for a local organisation like Ruwwad even more important then I thought. They bring the community together and create positive opportunities for youth and children. They also work together with Sounds of Change in three other countries, Lebanon, Jordan and the Westbank.
The group of trainees consisted of motivated participants from the first level training, as well as newly interested participants from Ruwwad. Because of the sometimes chaotic nature of the Level 1 training, we focused on accountability: how can you count on each other and really create a team in which everyone can contribute, express themselves, be vulnerable, and experience the strength of working together.
Next to learning new skills, the focus went quickly to writing songs with personal lyrics, in small groups. They wrote songs about themes that were important to them and which they could also use during their music workshops with children. Topics like bullying, living your dreams and important values they experienced themselves. They noticed that the group of 9-12 year olds liked to be asked personal questions. This process created some beautiful moments.
Although these feelings could be easily expressed during songwriting, during the daily ‘check in’ with the group there was some tension at times. This group was still getting to know each other and in their daily life, some of them are still dealing with being judged or discriminated, which makes sharing personal thoughts and feelings quite a big step. (When some people don't share anything about themselves, this can create a bigger feeling of unsafety in the group). So, creating a safe space for authentic expression was an important part of our process and approach and brought the group closer to each other in the end.
Amjad joined our team recently. We are training him to become a Sounds of Change trainer. He is living in Jordan and he is one of our partners ther, from another organisation called MedeArts. He was a tremendous help, not only as a musical friend and co trainer but also as a translator. The value of speaking the language and understanding the culture is huge. It is much easier for him to create a connection with the group because of that. Sounds of Change aims to train more and more local musicians, in order for us to make ourselves redundant.
Everything came together on the last day of the training: in 4 days the trainees prepared a workshop and concert in which three groups of children, divided in different age groups, played a major role. Also, they performed for the children as a big cheerful band!
After this energetic and sometimes chaotic gathering of about 75 children and youth, a lot of new ideas and questions came up. We would have loved to continue with this new inspiration but it was already time to say goodbye.
Our stay ended with a great dinner and a boat trip on the Nile, where the sharing of stories, laughs and talks continued. It showed us that the training fostered a strong connection among them, as they addressed important topics about religion, women independency and about what we have in common as individuals, coming from different backgrounds.
It was great to connect with everyone in this group and the next training is coming soon!
