A Project funded by the “Youth” Programme of the European Union
December 2001 – May 2002
The project consists of
the organisation of 10 drum circle workshops for disadvantaged adolescents
and a public performance by these adolescents living in an economically
and socially deprived area of Malta. The project will be run by a group of
nine young people working as volunteers with the Third World Group;
the young people include youngsters, males and females, who live in the
above-mentioned area.
The
group of young people will be running all aspects of the project: contacts
with the adolescents; training with the percussionist and musical director
(Renzo Spiteri) and the music therapist (Rosetta De Battista) who are the
advisors of the project; and the publication of a leaflet explaining the
idea behind the project, its various stages and the story of cultural
diversity and fair trade behind the instruments that will be used.
The
programme of activities also includes regular sessions that evaluate the
project and propose the changes needed to make it more effective.
The
last public activity will be a street performance in the heart of the
local community and this will be lead by the young people and the
adolescents. The drum circle workshops will be held in the Theatre of the
St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity.
An important aspect of
the project will be empowering the young people, especially those living
in this particular area, to allow them to train themselves as potential
leaders within their own community.
The European Dimension
This
project is all about bringing those who have been marginalised by
circumstances and by society back to the centre, where we all belong. The
main “instrument” that will be used is rhythm, because music and in
particular percussion have the potential to show in a concrete way that
all cultures, all sounds, all identities are equal and should be treated
equally. Both the issue of marginalisation and cultural diversity are
profoundly European issues.
Moreover,
the methods proposed in this project have been adopted by many European
NGOs working in the fields of urban regeneration and other social
initiatives. In this sense, the working method proposed here is a
European, though of course not an exclusively European, working method.
The
Third World Group has seen a number of similar projects in London, Reggio
Calabria, Catania, Belgium and southern France. One such project was the
three-year Jasmine project run by the Italian NGDO CRIC in Reggio
Calabria.
The
“Rhythms for Life” project is actively promoting fair trade by using
fair trade instruments. This too is a profoundly European issue:
·
In
January 1994, the European Parliament adopted a report and a resolution
promoting fairness and solidarity in North-South trade. The report
recommended measures to strengthen and support the fair trade movement and
to adopt the fair trade principles in policies of the European Union and
its Member States.
·
As a
follow-up of this 1994 resolution another resolution was adopted by the
European Parliament in 1998 on Fair Trade, the so called Fassa resolution,
and as a follow-up of this resolution the European Commission issued a
communication on Fair Trade at the end of 1999.
-
The European Commission’s Communication on fair trade (IP/99/937 - Brussels, 2 December 1999) states, among other things, that “fair trade touches many areas of Commission activities from development policy, general aspects of trade, the environment and employees’ rights through to consumer choice and assurances on label claims.”
The
“Rhythms for Life” team is led by Isabelle Bonnici (coordinator) and
Maria Mifsud (financial controller).
Adrian Grima
15.10.01
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