Hooked on music

Eleven years ago a group of street kids started hanging around the studio of a German trumpet teacher. After several unsuccessful attempts to chase them away, the teacher, Christopher Kowlezyk, invited a few of them in for lessons.
 
The boys were soon hooked on music instead of drugs and, in a short time, had formed their own group with dented and battered instruments supplied by Kowlezyk. Living in one room, sharing three to a mattress, they supported one another and paid their own school fees out of their earnings from the band’s occasional gigs.
 
They now receive some support from MTN, one of Uganda’s leading telecommunications firms, which hires them regularly. But with success has come additional responsibility. Other street children have gravitated towards the band which now provides for 64 boys and girls in two separate homes.
 
Musequality has provided a small, one-off grant of £500 so they can repair their battered and leaking instruments. Ever resourceful, the children plugged holes with chewing gum and this certainly worked; they continued to play with pride. But we thought it worth paying for the instruments to be properly repaired. The grant also enabled them to buy a much-coveted bass drum.
 
They now plan to develop training programmes that will generate funds for the group as well as giving the children a trade such as carpentry, welding and metal-work or poultry farming. Paying school fees for the children in their care is a constant pressure.
 
The band still rehearses in the same place as when they started in 1996 – under a large tree.
 
This remarkable group of young men are making an incredible contribution to their community.  We hope we will be able to offer them substantial support in the future to help them consolidate and develop their wonderful project.