Musequality, a brand new charity, was set up to take music projects to some of the poorest children in the developing world.

Our aim is not to produce professional musicians but to give vulnerable children the chance to learn skills that offer them a route out of poverty, lifting them off the streets and away from the risks of drug culture, violence and crime.

Anyone who has played a musical instrument, or sung in a choir or group, knows that it teaches skills that are valuable in other aspects of life. In particular it:

• enhances education – teaching numeracy, pattern recognition, goal setting, problem-solving;  
• builds social skills – discipline, working in a team, leadership, negotiating, compromise, making conversation;
• develops personal qualities – self-belief, self-confidence, self-esteem, ambition, a sense of identity;
• demonstrates the benefits of working hard – individual effort brings individual rewards and benefits the group as a whole;
• challenges prejudices – in societies where gender inequalities exist,
  it gives girls a chance to demonstrate equality.

The developing world desperately needs qualified and able teachers, doctors, farmers, lawyers, scientists, business people, decision-makers and leaders – drawn from their own communities. If it is to have those people in the future it needs – today – to help its young people develop the essential skills and qualities that will enable them to turn their lives around and fill these and other important roles. Communal music-making teaches those skills and qualities.

That’s where Musequality comes in. By setting up and supporting community music projects, we give children the chance to change their lives. And there is plenty of evidence, from countries such as Venezuela which runs a national music scheme, that it works.

If this approach strikes a chord with you – and you would like to support us, financially or in kind – please look at the section on our projects. They are all different but their aims and achievements are similar. Children involved in them have embraced life and its opportunities; they have ambitions – and a determination to realise them.

We’d like to help more children – in many countries in the developing world. With your help we will be able to do so.