February 2012

Sabin finds a way to join the band

Sabin lives at the Good Shepherd Home in Kampala where the Bracknell and Wokingham Community Band and Musequality support a brass and choral music project. Sabin was desperate to join in, but was born with very short arms and no hands, so finding him something to play was a challenge.
Airline pilot and harmonica player Daren Slack heard about Sabin and bought him a B flat harmonica and harmonica neck holder. Daren also made a personalised instruction video to get Sabin started, and Sabin is now practising hard to join the band.

February 2012

Report from Uganda

Executive director Jeremy Bradshaw and trustee Jean Buck visited our projects in Uganda in December to find out how the children involved in our music schemes are progressing. They received a warm welcome and were able to see and hear for themselves how well the various bands and choirs are performing.
Jeremy and Jean visited the Tender Talents Magnet School, M-Lisada and The Good Shepherd Home in Kampala, and made the trip to Mbale to see Fredrick Kyewalyanga and the Elgon Youth Brass Band. They also spent time with many of Musequality’s friends and partners, particularly Simon Yiga, director of Kampala Music School.
Highlights included special concerts by the children of Tender Talents, Good Shepherd Home and EYBB, and a visit to the inspirational Mummy Foundation, a project that helps girls and women in the Kampala slums. Jeremy and Jean discussed various management issues with the projects and acquired much useful information in preparation for the 2012 grant award process. More pictures and details

February 2012

Tadeo receives his prosthetic limbs

Tadeo, a young quadruple amputee from the Good Shepherd Home, has received prosthetic limbs to help him realise his dream of becoming a trombonist.
In November, Tadeo attended the hospital in Mbale, Uganda, where the International Committee of the Red Cross fitted him with new legs and a prosthetic arm. Tadeo was supported throughout by members of the Elgon Youth Brass Band. After a few teething problems with his new limbs, he is working hard to get used to them.
Tadeo has been befriended by Joan Mahalanobis, an expatriate who works with the Rotary Club of Uganda. She has secured funding for Tadeo to go to a private school that will better suit his needs. Tadeo’s supporters in the UK, Little Brian’s Little Big Band, have agreed to fund weekly trombone lessons for Tadeo, and he will be a regular weekend visitor to M-Lisada where he can play in the brass band.

February 2012

World Busk 2012 announced

The dates have been announced, and this year’s World Busk will swing into action on 11-17 June. Naturally we want it to be bigger and better than ever, so this year’s theme is ‘Extreme Busking’. Could you try for the highest altitude busk? How about a deepest busk – underwater? Can you beat the Rothera Research Station’s furthest south busking record? How about furthest north? Most colourful costume? Largest group? What about most unusual location – can you beat the aircraft carrier busk of 2009? Of course, everyone is welcome to join in, wherever you are in the world. Now’s the time to start planning your spot and your repertoire, and lining up an audience of supportive friends. For more details visit www.worldbusk.org

January 2012

Concert is Child’s Play for acclaimed soprano

The British soprano Patricia Rozario, who was born in Mumbai, topped the bill at a recent benefit concert in aid of the Child’s Play (India) Foundation in Goa. Two of her students, Joanne D’Mello and Susanna Hurrell, also performed to a full house.
Luis Dias, co-leader of the Child’s Play project at the Hamara School in Goa, reports that further Child’s Play projects in other parts of India are under way. Violin lessons are about to start at an orphanage in Kolkata, and there are similar plans for a charity in Bengaluru.
The children of Goa gave their own first concert in December. The violinists played Twinkle variations, while the recorder kids played tunes such as Mary had a Little Lamb. Luis is particularly pleased to report that two of the violin children, Irfan and Reshma, have won admission into Goa’s music school, Kala Academy, against tough competition from scores of middle-class kids.

January 2012

Elgon Youth Brass Band promotes girl power

Girls are acquiring confidence and new skills thanks to EYBB’s skills-development programme. Tailoring and hairdressing activities have been enthusiastically taken up by girls, many of whom had dropped out of school. A ‘girl confidence club’ called Super Ladies has been introduced, where girls try their hand at activities usually associated with boys – such as tuba playing and conducting.
Meanwhile the brass band and dance troupe are going from strength to strength, with a full programme of engagements lined up for 2012. These include performances at weddings, conferences and trade shows as well as appearances on special occasions such as International Women’s Day and International Labour Day.

January 2012

Cultural project yields rich dividends

Destitute children from the surrounding community in Kampala have been participating in M-Lisada’s cultural dance and drama project. Progress has been remarkable – three boys and three girls have been admitted into established performing groups, such as Ndere Troupe. The children have also started earning an income from the performing skills they have learnt at M-Lisada through performances at weddings, celebrations and other events. The group won a prize at the Bayimba International Festival of the Arts in the autumn, and after the event several visitors from East African countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Congo came to the M-Lisada reception centre to meet the street children.
M-Lisada project leader Bosco Segawa reports that since the beginning of the year, over 25 street children have been reunited with their families.

December 2011

Tadeo’s trombone dream comes a step closer

Tadeo, a boy from the Good Shepherd Home in Kampala, Uganda, who lost his hands and feet in a fire, should shortly be receiving his new prosthetic limbs. 



 Tadeo’s dream is to learn to play the trombone, and Musequality has been supporting the efforts to find him the prosthetic limbs he needs. The Red Cross Centre in Mbale, Uganda, intends to start treating him in late November. The process of fitting the limbs and providing the necessary training is expected to take between two and four weeks, and Tadeo will be taking his trombone with him.

The Good Shepherd Home and Tadeo are supported by a campaign called Brass for Africa, run by Bracknell and Wokingham Community Band (BWCB). All the money they raise is match-funded by Musequality. The campaign is co-ordinated by airline pilot Jim Trott.

 The Good Shepherd Home is a residence for disabled adults and children in the middle of Mengo-Kisenyi, one of Kampala’s worst slums. Simon Yiga of the Kampala Music School helped set up a brass band at the home, modelled on the nearby M-Lisada Brass Band. The Berkshire Maestros Trust and several private donors in the UK donated 30 brass instruments to get them started. 

 Almost 40 children at the Good Shepherd Home are now receiving brass tuition from members of the M-Lisada band, funded by Musequality and Brass for Africa.

December 2011

Child’s Play project makes the headlines

Visitors from India, England, Spain and New Zealand have been beating a path to the door of the Hamara School in Goa, where a Child’s Play music project has been running for the past year. The programme was set up with Musequality’s help and is led by Luis and Chryselle Dias.

Among those enjoying the children’s musical performances was a high-level delegation from the British Isles including Sean Rafferty of BBC Radio 3, the editorial team of Opera Now, several music teachers and others from the classical music industry. The visit was mentioned in a cover story article in Classical Music (4 June 2011).

During Musequality’s World Busk in June, Child’s Play organised a busk-cum-concert at a high-profile bookshop in the tourist hotspot of Candolim, winning publicity in the local press and online. The children are currently preparing for their first-ever students’ concert in December, featuring violin and recorder. Child’s Play hopes to introduce lessons on brass instruments in the not-too-distant future.

November 2011

M-Lisada leader inspired by meeting of minds

Bosco Segawa, the leader of the M-Lisada project, has attended a conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, entitled ‘Helping street children return home’. The event was organised by Retrak, a UK-based charity that works with street children in Africa.



 Bosco was accompanied by Simon Yiga, director of the Kampala Music School, which has close ties with M-Lisada. Musequality helped to fund their trip.



 M-Lisada is a project based in Kampala, Uganda, which cares for and educates street children. At its heart is its brass band, a rapidly evolving success story which has been supported by Musequality for several years. 


Among the lessons Bosco took from the conference was the importance of involving the children in all discussions and decision-making. It is also vital to employ young workers who have lived on the streets themselves and understand what street life is like.

Bosco says he learned a great deal from the experience of others, such as Tom Hewitt, director of Umthombo, a Durban-based organisation, who uses activities such as surfing, drama and music to attract children away from the streets.

October 2011

Sad times for Elgon Youth Brass Band

It has been a difficult year for the Elgon Youth Brass Band in Uganda. In January, 16-year-old trombonist Rogers Washirwa died from an undiagnosed illness. In October, 15-year-old Bumba Sadart died of leukaemia, and just a few days later Asayo Morin, who worked as the band’s nanny, lost her battle with breast cancer. She was a widow who left behind eight children, some of whom are band members.

Despite these tragedies, project leader Fred Kyewalyanga remains focused on fundraising and improving the quality of life for all the members of the band. He has requested donations of instruments, secured concert venues and entered the band into competitions. He is currently working on getting children back in touch with their roots, and developing more effective outreach initiatives.

October 2011

London’s ‘most romantic building’ hosts Musequality reception

The St Pancras Renaissance London Hotel provided the glorious backdrop to a reception at the start of October, organised by Musequality to promote its work with underprivileged children overseas.

Guests gathered on the Grand Staircase to listen to David Juritz playing solo Bach and to hear more about the way in which music projects are changing the lives of marginalised children in Africa, Asia and India.

Sir John Betjeman called the Gothic treasure ‘too beautiful and too romantic to survive’ in a world of tower blocks and concrete. However, after years of devoted restoration, the hotel is being hailed as the city’s most romantic building.

Musequality would like to thank Ed White, director of sales and marketing at the hotel, and his team for their support.

July 2011

Special needs school raises money for Africa

At a concert on a summer’s evening in July, a young Down’s syndrome boy took the baton and conducted the Bracknell and Wokingham Community Band through a spirited rendering of ‘Hawaii Five-O’. Slides of the Good Shepherd Home in Kampala, Uganda, were shown throughout.

The free end-of-term concert at Addington School, an extreme special needs school in Woodley, Reading, was the highlight of a week of fundraising events on the theme of Africa. There was an African market, African drummers, and cakes were baked and sold, with profits going to Musequality. We would like to thank the band and the children, and particularly Jeanette Rockey, who is the deputy head at the school and also clarinetist in the Community band and Little Brian’s Little Big Band.

June 2011

Refugee children busk in Beirut

Refugee Palestinian children entertained an impromptu audience in Hamra Street, Beirut, with a variety of songs and classical music pieces in support of the World Busk on 18 June. Performing on the violin and traditional Middle Eastern instruments, the children were from the Al Kamandjati project, a non-profit association that supports the education of children in Palestine and the refugee camps of Lebanon through participation in music.
‘It was a chance for the children to show the people of Beirut that there is more to the refugee camps than poverty and conflict,’ said Alice Howick, a teacher with Al Kamandjati.


March 2011

Documentary-maker dodges food riots to film our work

An 18-minute film showcasing Musequality’s projects in Africa has been completed by documentary-maker Steve Maud.

Steve began filming in Kampala in March 2011, spending a couple of days with each of the projects. This coincided with heavy rioting and protests at the exorbitant rise in petrol prices, which meant people started to starve, unable to pay the high food prices.

‘I was actually filming an interview with Bosco from M-Lisada when a whole mob of people started running towards me, following by the police firing guns,’ Steve says. ‘A testament to the project I was filming, they barricaded me in behind closed gates; the police had heard there was a white man filming in the vicinity and wanted to talk to me, but the boys at M-Lisada hid me in the instrument room until the trouble had passed.’

The film captures the enthusiasm of many of the children involved in the projects, who explain in vivid terms what the opportunity to participate in music-making has meant to them.

Steve has a long background in making documentaries and campaign films around the world, from the slums of Nairobi to the offices of some of the largest corporations in the UK. He has worked for Comic Relief, the BBC, ITV and Channel Four, as well as a growing number of private companies. Watch the film here.

February 2011

M-Lisada Brass Band offers a helping hand

More than 30 children at the Good Shepherd Home in Kampala, Uganda, are now receiving brass tuition from members of the M-Lisada Brass Band, thanks to Bracknell and Wokingham Community Band (BWCB) which is providing the funding. M-Lisada is also maintaining the home’s donated instruments, and once a month children from the home are going to M-Lisada for massed band practice and peer learning. BWCB’s funding covers their transportation, food and drink costs for the day.

BWCB has also contracted Kampala Music School to provide two hours a week of choral/singing lessons to all 70 children in the Good Shepherd Home. In addition, a UK-trained musical therapist will visit the home for two hours each week to work with the most seriously disabled children.

January 2011

Thai school benefits from memorial donations

Felix Cooper Robinson died just days after his 19th birthday when the bus he was travelling on in Thailand was involved in an accident. Felix, who was set to study economics at Leeds University, was passionate about travel and music. His family is asking for donations in his memory to go to Musequality and a charity called Road Traffic.

The first project funded by donations in memory of Felix has just started in Huay Nam Yen school in northern Thailand. Like the Musequality project at nearby Ban Mok Cham school, the programme will focus on teaching children the traditional music of the Shan hill-tribe community.

The money received by Musequality from Felix’s memorial has paid for traditional musical instruments for the children. Musequality has also arranged for a music teacher to visit every Monday, and we hope to continue to raise funds to support this project.