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Day 9

One hour of music lessons for a child in South Africa

Musical education Musical education

One hour of music lessons for a child in South Africa
Day 9
Changing lives through music

“I feel like I am flying!” - said Simnikiwe Nkani, a student at the Keiskamma Music Academy, after conducting the Keiskamma Ensemble for the first time. The vision of the Keiskamma Music Academy is to improve the quality of life and future prospects of disadvantaged children from rural Hamburg (South Africa) and its surroundings through music education. The students have shown great interest and talent and their progress is remarkable. They live in a small, remote village in the Eastern Cape province, where the learning environment is rather limited and structures to support the children hardly exist. That is why the music lessons have been a very special experience for them so far.

Changing lives through music
need
Help for young people without opportunities
activity
Music lessons for school children in theory and practice during the week and at weekends
Measurable performance
Hours of music lessons
Result
Number of successful performances, positive impact on students’ grade point average
Systemically relevant impact
Improve student opportunities; advanced students have acquired leadership skills and contribute to change in their community
background

The remote Eastern Cape province is a structurally weak, rather poor region in South Africa. The area, which is rich in natural resources, suffers greatly from a weak and under-resourced education system, which creates extremely unequal starting opportunities for children and reproduces and exacerbates existing inequalities of opportunity in the population instead of counteracting them. The division into private and public schools creates two parallel systems, and the education system is often described as inefficient, especially in the country's rural regions.
Although both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Arts and Culture have recognized the importance of music and art education for the cognitive and holistic development of children, this area has been severely neglected in recent decades, mainly due to a lack of funding.

Day 9 Day 9
The good deed

Music lessons in childhood promote brain development. Not only language learning and coordination skills, but also spatial imagination and mathematical understanding are promoted. Over time, the lessons also strengthen self-confidence, discipline and the ability to tackle challenges creatively and courageously. This has a primarily positive effect on school results. Indirectly, it also gives students a better chance of escaping the problems common in the remote area, such as teenage pregnancy, unemployment, alcohol addiction, HIV infection or dropping out of school, as the lessons offer a meaningful alternative to boredom and open up new perspectives.

AboutSouth Africa
Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)
Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)
Capital city
52,981,991 (2013)
52,981,991 (2013)
Population
7,507 US$
7,507 US$
Gross domestic product per capita per year
121
121
Human Development Index (Human Development Index)

The “rainbow nation” is bursting with diversity in nature and people. There are 11 national languages.

About the organization and further information

organization

Keiskamma Music Academy (Keiskamma Trust program)

The Keiskamma association was recently founded in Germany, but is based on the many years of successful work of the South African partner organization Keiskamma Trust.

Further links