High Notes

AACAN -
Action Against Child Abuse and Neglect
Location:
P.O. Box 724 Plot 22 Solot Avenue
Soroti, Uganda

AACAN provides rehabilitation for child soldiers used as combatants, messengers, porters, cooks, and prostitutes. Some were abducted or forcibly recruited by the LRA, while still others are driven by poverty, abuse and discrimination. Children are desensitized to violence and rehabilitation is difficult. The Ministry of Health in Uganda and MWH coordinated to get all the children in this camp tested for HIV/AIDS shortly after MWH’s 2005 trip

Berklee College of Music
Location:
1140 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02215 (USA)

Students in the Music Therapy Program, a major at Berklee, learn to apply music's enormous force to improve the quality of life in individuals with special needs. MWH has been working with faculty and students to devise a plan to both satisfy academic accreditation by providing a quantifiable, on-going study which demonstrates the healing powers of music as well as providing an on-going education and instruction to those refugees and orphans involved in MWH programming. In May, 2007 Samite accompanied 9 students and 1 professor to both Nyumbani and Shangilia orphanages in Kenya. MWH and Berklee will continue trips to Africa as part of the academic programming in the future.

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Braintree Primary School
Location:
Kyanja, P.O. Box 30025,
Kampala, Uganda

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MWH took US-donated instruments to their music program and continually recommend musicians/organizations to regularly visit the school.  One such important visit that helped the school gain visibility & a voice was that of XM Radio through their broadcast of the Braintree Primary Childrens together with US children.

BVES (Bureau for Volunteer Service for Children and Health), FSH (Fondation Solidarity des Hommes), and Panzi Hospital
Location:
Bukavu, Congo

In collaboration with Lalela Project (formerly known as Art of Humanity International), MWH travelled to northeastern Congo to bring the healing powers of music and art to the lives of former child soldiers and victims of rape and sexual violence.  In addition to encouraging and facilitating self-expression through music, MWH produced recordings of the sessions for the participants to keep.  Donations of instruments, boom boxes and radios were left behind to fill the hands once occupied by guns.  

Read More in an article by Sandra Long [1.3 MB PDF]

Hospicare
Location:
Ithaca, New York (USA)

Music at the bedside is not a concert, but something for patients and families to simply allow in the environment without having to respond in any way. There is a growing field called Music in Palliative Care. Many cultures over time, have used music at the bedside to help alleviate emotional, spiritual, psychological and even some physical suffering. Music at the bedside has been seeing a rebirth over the last two decades adding a dimension of care to other modalities in palliative care. MWH and Hospicare Ithaca have worked closely together to provide means of bringing music to individuals in time of need.

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Ithaca City of Asylum
Location:
Ithaca, New York (USA)

A non-profit group dedicated to giving safe harbor to dissident writers whose works are suppressed, invited MWH to collaborate in their event “Voices Of Freedom” commemorating “banned books” week. The September 2006 event at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca, included a short concert by Samite and the opportunity for MWH to raise awareness of its program.

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Ithaca Downtown Partnership
Location:
Ithaca, New York (USA)

Sponsored a children’s music event during the Apple Harvest Festival in September 2006 with a concert on The Commons in Ithaca NY. Vitamin L, a local non-profit singing group whose purpose is “to uplift and inspire young people and encourage positive character development through music” first performed. Then Charlie Shew, Ritchie Stearns and members of the Indian performing group Musafir, who offered their services gratis, joined Samite on stage to promote the work of MWH.

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Lalela Project
Location:
5 Hanover Square, Suite 1801
New York, NY 10004

"We believe Imagination, Activation, Collaboration, and Transformation (I ACT) is made possible through Ideas, Art, and Music (I AM). Through our global art exchange projects, Lalela Project seeks to inspire teachable moments for children affected by extreme poverty and to invite transformation for all who choose to join our efforts." - from the Lalela Project Vision.

Lalela Project is a global exchange of ideas, art and music that empower children affected by extreme poverty. 

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Maji Ya Chai Orphanage
Location:
Arusha, Tanzania

Maji Ya Chai is an orphanage an hour from Arusha, near Usa River, which is home to hundreds of children directly from the streets of Arusha. Most of the children do not have AIDS or HIV, but they come from seriously neglected, abusive or extremely poor “labor” families. MWH’s Ambassadors of Goodwill visit this orphanage regularly.

Nyumbani Children of God Relief Institute
Location:
3050 K Street NW Suite 400
Washington DC 20007-5108

This home provides comprehensive care for HIV/ AIDS positive children. Testing since 1999 for HIV/AIDS and related diseases, they recently worked with the Kenyan government and private donors to insure drug treatment for all of the children. They won a legal battle with the government of Kenya to allow their children to attend primary school. MWH’s Ambassadors of Goodwill visit this orphanage yearly.

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Shangilia - Children’s Theatre
Location:
Home & School
P.O. Box 39236
Nairobi Kenya

Shangilia has been aiding street children through aggressive yet compassionate community outreach. Shangilia is open to children who have HIV/AIDS, are abandoned, neglected, experiencing poverty, using drugs, destitute, or in need of short term refuge. They provide residence, education, drama, music, acrobatics and skills development programs. The public performances of their children raise awareness on issues such as street living, abandoned children, HIV/AIDS, and poverty. MWH’s Ambassadors of Goodwill visit this orphanage yearly.

SOS Children’s Villages
Location:
National Office
P.O. Box 27510
Kampala, Uganda

Founded in Uganda in 1991, SOS Kakiri and SOS International have 400 children between them and have implemented 1100 other projects in similar villages in over 132 countries throughout the world. Their purpose is to help orphaned and abandoned children by providing housing and education.

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Uganda Women’s Effort to Save Orphans (UWESO)
Location:
PO. Box: 8419
Kampala Uganda

One out of every 6 children in Uganda is an orphan, whether through war or HIV/AIDS. UWESO was founded in 1986 by a group of women with the mission to rescue children and provide food, clothing and shelter. Also, they generate income for training and micro loans. UWESO identified camps or schools in Uganda that MWH can visit and establish visiting musicians programs.

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Unique and Born Free Safaris
Assisted MWH in their first ever 2006 MWH SOUL OF AFRICA SAFARI. Unique and Born Free Safaris Partners offered their services for free to co-ordinate an “Ambassadors of Good Will” trip to Kenya and Tanzania in 2006. This virgin trip was captured on video footage and will be included in a full-length documentary.

Locations:
Unique Safaris – Tanzania
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Born Free Safaris – Kenya
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