UNRWA opens four music centres for Palestine refugee children – UNRWA press release

UNRWA Opens Four Music Centres for Palestine Refugee Children

Aleppo 7 July: To the rhythm of traditional Arab music, the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Syria, Panos Moumtzis and Frans Wolfkamp, Managing Director of Music in Me inaugurated the Ramallah Children’s Music Centre today in Ein el-Tal Camp, Aleppo. The ceremony today was part of a week-long series of music centre inaugurations taking place in Neirab, Aleppo, Lattakia, and Homs. Music in Me, a Dutch non-governmental organization founded in 2004, strives to bring music to the lives of people in the Middle East whose access to music is otherwise limited because of war, poverty or lack of opportunity.

Each centre is located in an UNRWA school and will provide professional music tuition in classical Arab instruments including the lute, the zither, the flute and the drum to over 40 students from UNRWA elementary schools in the community.

Thanking Music in Me for its generous donation, Moumtzis noted that UNRWA is fortunate in its partnership with Music in Me which allows it to implement this project in cooperation with the Solhi al-Wadi Institute in Damascus. “These centres provide the means for Palestine refugee children to learn to express themselves through music and help to promote a sense of joy amongst the children,” Moumtzis said.

Wolfkamp highlighted that with the opening of these four centres, Music in Me is taking a new step towards a better future for the refugee children and their communities in camps outside Damascus. A total of six UNRWA centres will soon be reaching nearly 300 students per year.

UNRWA is a humanitarian and human development agency providing education, health care, social services, micro-credit and emergency relief to over 4 million registered refugees living in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.

For information only — Not an official record

For further information please contact:

Hala Mukhles

Office: 6133035 ext 314

Mobile: 093-416591