While shelter, water, warmth and food are at the forefront of any humanitarian effort, those behind Music Against Borders also believe that making music provides an equally important host of therapeutic, social and cultural benefits.
For those in Bristol who wish to help migrant people, music venue Colston Hall is to become a donation point for Music Against Borders, and will be collecting unwanted or unused musical instruments. These will then be distributed amongst migrants in Calais who either play an instrument already or are looking to learn, as well as enabling music-making workshops within the migrant refugee camps.
In particular, the organisation is looking for 'goblet' drums of the djembe and doumbek type, ukuleles and childrens’ instruments, alongside any instruments from Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia. However, all instruments are useful as they have a wide range of teachers that will be putting on a huge variety of workshops over the coming months.
The instruments will also be used to support the initiation of a migrant’s orchestra project, a cultural musical exchange and to donate to migrant musicians within the UK.
In October, Music Against Borders will be taking a convoy of multi-lingual musicians along with these instruments to facilitate drumming, singing, guitar and dance workshops. They will also be engaging existing musicians in the camp to put on their own workshops, teaching the song and music of their homelands. The organisation is hoping to raise money to put these workshops into action here.
Music Against Borders
The Colston Hall Box Office, where the instruments can be donated, is open Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm until October 16.
You can find out more information about the project here. If you're interested in getting involved in putting on workshops or working alongside the team, you can email musicagainstborders@yahoo.com.
Read more music related articles here.