International aid and development

Music as Therapy

Training Romanian care staff  

After the overthrow of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, the world was shocked by the way Romania’s disabled and disadvantaged population had been treated, and western volunteers flocked to provide assistance. Music as Therapy’s executive director Alexia Quin was one of them, but the experience convinced her that the problems within the country’s care system could best be addressed by meeting the need for staff training, rather than trying to replace staff with international volunteers. ‘I wanted to do something that would last longer than my presence ever could,’ she explains. 

While other groups were becoming overwhelmed by the level of need and trying to be all things to all people, Quin decided to focus on one area and chose music therapy training. ‘Music can be a voice for children and adults who can’t communicate, and we offer a way that local carers can hear that voice.’ 

To date, six-week introductory training projects have been received by 145 Romanian workers, working with just under 3,000 adults and children in 21 educational and care settings (both residential and day). Furthermore, there are 28 care settings on a waiting list to receive projects. Music as Therapy has received endorsement from a range of high-profile sources, including the Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust, which said:  ‘We have always been greatly impressed with their achievements in Romania, which they accomplish with a wonderfully slim administration.’ 

Alexia Quin Executive director Music as Therapy The Co-op Centre 11 Mowll Street London SW9 6BG 020 7735 3231 Reg.No. 1070760  www.musicastherapy.org

 

Find out how this award winning charity made more of a difference through using performance approaches - click here .   

International HIV/Aids Alliance 

The frontiers prevention project   

The Frontiers Prevention Project (FPP) is a global initiative focused on preventing the contraction and spread of HIV in countries that have so far kept infection rates low. FPP focuses its intensive prevention efforts on highly vulnerable groups including gay men, sex workers, injecting drug users and people living with HIV and Aids.  

With the current focus on AIDS in Africa, it is easy for policy makers to forget that one-third of people living with HIV in the world are in countries that do yet have epidemics. The FPP approach seeks to invest in prevention in vulnerable, high-risk countries where the Aids epidemic is not yet widespread but is at high risk of becoming so due to poor health services and education. The FPP has set out to reverse the reality of further HIV and AIDS disasters for communities in India, Ecuador, Cambodia, Morocco and Madagascar. 

‘FPP has turned the situation around for the project’s participants,’ says Anna Massey, adviser at the International HIV/Aids Alliance, ‘by creating support structures, increasing knowledge of sexual health, improving access to health services, reducing violence and discrimination and mobilising political interest in its efforts.’

To date, there are a large number of successes, with reports of structural and institutional changes, as well as behavioural changes that will support prevention work in the long-term.  

Anna Massey Adviser: Department of Communications and Resource Mobilisation International HIV/AIDS Alliance  Queensbury House 104-106 Queens Road Brighton BN1 3XF  www.aidsalliance.org

Street Child Africa

Offering new choices through innovative street-based approaches  

Street Child Africa raises funds in the UK to build the capacity of African agencies that provide assistance to more than 20,000 street children in six countries. ‘Often grassroots level workers are isolated,’ explains director Amy Hatton. ‘We are making possible communication and coordination between agencies.’ 

The HIV/Aids pandemic has created a generation of orphans in Africa, and this together with other poverty-related problems such as family breakdown, alcoholism and domestic violence mean that an estimated three million children live on the streets. New generations of street children are being born to illiterate teenage mothers who have lost contact with families, villages and roots and aren’t able to register their births. With no identity, conventional aid passes them by. 

The charity has been recognised for successfully implementing an ambitious growth strategy, which has seen income double each year for the past three years. African partnerships have grown from two in Ghana to a network of eight partners in six countries, assisting an average of 25,000 street children per year. Efforts to increase exposure have helped establish a 7,000-strong supporter base in the UK, creating enough sustainable income for a three-year funding programme. Adds Hatton: ‘Despite taking place at the same time as the tsunami, our Christmas Appeal in The Times received an incredible response.’ 

Amy Hatton Director The Priory 58 High Street Thames Ditton Surrey KT7 0TT 020 8972 9820 Reg. no. 1074832  www.streetchildafrica.org.uk

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