Children at the Good Shepherd Home are learning to play with the help of their neighbours, M-Lisada
Music Projects
Good partners
Good Shepherd Home, Kampala, Uganda
The Good Shepherd Home is a residence for 282 disabled adults and children in the middle of Mengo-Kisenyi, one of Kampala’s worst slums. It is run by the Missionaries of the Poor, an order of Catholic priests from Kingston, Jamaica, as part of a wider programme of services for the community.
A Musequality trustee recently visited the home and was delighted with the passion and energy she encountered. From the colourful décor and furnishings to the exuberance of the children and the caring attitude of the young towards the elderly, she felt she had arrived at ‘a bountiful oasis’.
Simon Yiga of the Kampala Music School helped set up a brass band at the home, modelled on the M-Lisada Brass Band . One of the first people that Simon introduced to the project was Jim Trott, a frequent visitor to Kampala through his work as an airline pilot. Between them they managed to source some 30 brass instruments, donated mainly by the Berkshire Maestros Trust and several private donors in the UK.
More than 30 children at the Good Shepherd Home are now receiving brass tuition from members of the M-Lisada band, funded by Musequality and Bracknell and Wokingham Community Band (BWCB). M-Lisada is also maintaining the home’s donated instruments, and once a month children from the home visit M-Lisada for massed band practice and peer learning. BWCB’s funding covers their transportation, food and drink costs for the day.
Musequality has also contracted Kampala Music School to provide two hours a week of choral/singing lessons to all 70 children in the home. In addition, a UK-trained musical therapist will visit for two hours each week to work with the most seriously disabled children.
One of the budding musicians in the Good Shepherd Home is 14-year-old Tadeo, who, a few years ago, lost both hands and feet in a fire. Despite his appalling injuries he is determined to learn to play the trombone. Money raised during Musequality’s World Busk by Little Brian’s Little Big Band is being used to pay for prosthetic limbs, enabling Tadeo to begin to realise his dream.
