As of January 2023, Africa Music School – operating in a suburb of Kampala and in a rural village of Busunju – is a partner organization of Music for Children. During Samira and Josien’s visit to Uganda in the summer of 2022, they came across this organization by chance. After further contact, Africa Music School and Music for Children appeared to have similar goals and so we decided to work together to find ways to strengthen each other.
Africa Music School is an organization that provides music lessons to children in their community (Masajja, Uganda). AMS was founded by Francis Kalema, as a child himself he lived on the streets of Kampala. Francis, or Franke, in his own words, was “saved by music. He joined several music projects in Kampala and through this he got off the streets. Now Franke also wants to help other children get a better life through the use of music.
Africa Music School focuses mainly on the “less privileged” and vulnerable children in the community because they have nowhere to go. Music is their tool to rescue children and discover their talents to give them a life purpose. The ultimate goal of the organization is to become a true university where children from all over the country can enjoy music lessons. Currently, AMS is already teaching more than 270 children and young people. These are mostly children who do not have the opportunity to receive regular education. By offering free music lessons, the children still receive some form of education and it offers them a way out from the streets of the city. These are goals that Music for Children, of course, fully supports.
Saxophone lessons by Claire
Music for Children teacher teacher ClaireClaire teaches saxophone lessons in AMS projects in both Kampala and Bunsunju. Music for Children ensures that the children have a good teacher and playable instruments.
Special target group: blind and visually impaired children
Having a visual impairment reduces your opportunities in Uganda. Blind and visually impaired children in Uganda are treated like scum. Children are sometimes disowned by their parents because of their blindness. This makes them an incredibly vulnerable group in Ugandan society. In addition, they cannot attend a regular school and there is often no money for special education. During their visit, Josien and Samira experienced for themselves how important and impactful music is for blind children. By working together with Africa Music School we hope to reach and help even more children by offering music lessons, especially this vulnerable target group.
Salaama School for the Blind
Since 2024, Music for Children has been supporting the project at Salaama School for the Blind. For years, AMS was asked to please provide lessons at Salaama, and thanks to our partnership, they succeeded in 2024. The children of Salaama are an especially vulnerable group: in 2020, a fire in the school destroyed the building and worse: some children did not survive the fire. Therefore, in addition to bringing joy, music is also a form of therapy for the children. Children often played the almost completely burned piano of their own accord afterward, as seen in the video below. The children are progressing very fast and now have many opportunities to show throughout Uganda that blindness in music and dance does not have to be a limitation. Every day they make the stigma around blindness less, and it is clear that music and dance empower them. AMS provides the lessons, teachers, instruments, etc., and Music for Children pays these costs.
Cevic School for the Blind
In 2023, Music for Children supported the project at the Cevic School for the Blind.
The children at the school are all very visually impaired or totally blind. The director of the school is herself the mother of a visually impaired child. She noticed that there was no place for her child anywhere and that the people around her did not want anything to do with her blind child either. So she founded a school especially for children with visual (and sometimes mental) disabilities. These children are very sensitive to sound and music; every spare hour was spent listening to the radio and trying to sing along. Through the support of MvK, Franke, with his AMS team, was able to provide music lessons at Cevic School several times a week in 2023. Starting in 2024, the music lessons at Cevic will be continued by another organization. They will build on the musical foundation that AMS provided to these children with the support of Music for Children.
