This year, give the most important gift possible…

Hope.

Every night, children in Kosovo wake up screaming from horrific nightmares about men with guns.  Every day, Protestant and Catholic kids in Northern Ireland cautiously play in segregated communities, always fearing a burst of violence.  Every evening, Ugandan boys and girls trek to urban shelters where they huddle together to evade being kidnapped and forced into becoming child soldiers.

These children live thousands of miles apart, but they all suffer from the trauma of war.  And they are all being cared for by a unique program—The Shropshire Music Foundation—instilling tolerance, emotional healing and peace through music education and performance programs.

And this holiday season, there is a child that needs your help.

This small grassroots organization has become a powerful force in teaching war-traumatized children living in atmospheres of compounding hatred that they can be peacemakers.  The foundation has grown to reach Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Uganda.  However, despite the program’s remarkable growth and successes, funding is at an all-time low.

Give your friend or family member the gift of hope for a suffering child.

Simply click here to make a secure, tax-deductible donation through Paypal. Then email us to receive a beautiful card to give to your neighbor, boss, co-worker, friend or family member.  We can mail the card(s) to you or mail them directly to your recipients.  Just send us an email with your name, their name, and the address(es) that you would like the card(s) mailed to.

The inside of the card will read:

“As a gift to you, a donation was made in your name to the Shropshire Music Foundation.  This donation will buy musical instruments and classes for children living in war zones.  More importantly, this gift will instill self-esteem, teach ethnic and religious tolerance, and provide hope for children that have so little.”

We guarantee your friends and family will be touched and inspired by your important gift.  We know that we will be!

May your holiday season be especially bright and peaceful this year.  Thank you, your support means everything to us.

The Shropshire Music Foundation

For more information on the Foundation and its innovative initiatives, go to:

www.teachingchildrenpeace.org

info@shropshirefoundation.org

Or call (310) 709-3717

Rhiannon and Rebekah Hatch With Me at the SMF Booth!

Every fall, I spend quite a bit of time doing public speaking—to schools, church groups, community clubs, universities, and pretty much anyplace people will sit down and listen to me.  This year, SMF’s wonderful friend and supporter, Alberta music teacher Barb Hatch, asked me to come to the Alberta Music Teachers Conference and man a booth about our program.  The convention lasts two days and today is day two.  Music teachers from all over Alberta attend this convention, as does the Alberta High School Honor Band, and so many teachers and students have stopped at our booth to ask what we are about.  I tell them about our programs in Kosovo, Uganda, and N Ireland, and about the opportunity they have to participate in PRACTICE FOR PEACE.

Rebekah Modeling T-Shirt Given to P4P Participants Who Raise $100 or More!

Barb made a lot of copies of our Practice for Peace Group Kit and the SMF DVD, so I’ve been handing them out right and left.  I expect a really great response from Alberta this year!

And it makes me want to do this more!  If you have a Music Teachers Conference or Convention in your state or city and would like to have a booth, please contact me.  It’s a fantastic way to spread the word about what we are doing and to get others involved.  And you really don’t need me to be at the booth, although I’m enjoying doing it and would love to do as many of these as I can when I’m in the US and Canada.

So just let me know.  And if you don’t know about PRACTICE FOR PEACE, please read about it on our website and download the kit and do it!

Barb Hatch With the SMF Booth!

Barb Hatch, here.   I just wanted to make a plug to any music teachers out there.  I noticed when I did a booth at this conference a couple of years ago that my name tag as an exhibitor also allowed me to attend all workshops at the conference.   This year,  flying Liz in to run the booth has turned it into an opportunity to reach two of my yearly personal goals—–get in one professional development event,  AND  give Liz some good SCHMOOZING  time in Alberta.  We’ve had a great weekend hanging out,  reintroducing Liz to Tim Horton’s donuts :)  and  especially meeting some wonderful people that we hope will become regular supporters of Practice for Peace!!

My name is Kenny and I started volunteering as the Online Media Coordinator for the Shropshire Music Foundation in 2007. That year, Liz came to speak about the foundation in Los Angeles. Burim was here from Kosovo, too, and he presented with her. I was touched and checked out the SMF website after the meeting; that’s when I decided there was something I wanted to do to help. I contacted Liz to offer my services as a graphic designer and we threw the snowball that led to an avalanche of new things: a new website, facebook page, email newsletters, online donation possibilities, and…blogging!

So, last Monday when Liz came to speak again in Los Angeles, I headed over to listen. She did a wonderful job–as always–and it was fascinating to listen to her presentation after having volunteered with her for 3 years. I felt the same sense of need and I’m still 100% happy I’m a volunteer. But this time, instead of being a passive watcher, I was already friends with Liz and we got to discuss how all of the programs are doing and what more I can do for SMF. The Muse must agree that it’s such an important cause and that Liz is such a dedicated leader, because when I’m around Liz I always come up with plenty of ideas about how to help! For example, how we’re going to feature the latest SMF promo item…stay tuned to the site!

In fact, Liz gave me one of the new promo items as a gift–a guitar pick on a necklace, threaded and tied by the youth volunteers in Kosovo.  More than that, she called me up in front of the whole crowd and thanked me for my service. I felt so much love from her and from the volunteers in Kosovo and everywhere. It’s a treasured keepsake now. Thanks Liz and all of you in Kosovo!

It has been a joy helping the foundation continue to help children become peacemakers. I consider myself blessed to have crossed paths with Liz and send my love to everyone involved–volunteers, all of the donors, students in clubs raising awareness, and especially the children learning to become peacemakers through music!

Liz’s speech generated a lot of discussion and made all sorts of people aware of what is going on with the children of war. I hope you’ll all share this site with your friends and tell them in person how you feel about it. And I hope to see you back here again soon, Liz!

Kenny

Here are some pictures from the evening:

Summer 2001, Singing Class at Tolerance Camp

I have a really hard time writing this blog when I’m in the US doing the fundraising and awareness building part of my job.  I spend all of my time organizing and coordinating speaking engagements or fundraising events, and supervising our programs overseas via email, phone, and text message.  Takes a LOT of time, but I don’t think it would be very interesting to read about.  So I decided to look up some old journal entries and email updates I sent out long before we had this blog on our website.  They are really long so I will break them up and add the pictures that go with the events, as I couldn’t do when I sent out the emails so many years ago.  I hope you enjoy it!

MY LIFE AND ADVENTURES IN KOSOVA: Summer 2001, Part 1

I returned to Kosova at the end of May.  I’m so very glad to be back in Kosova.  The people here are so wonderful; they truly ARE the riches of Kosova.  But I have experienced more frustration in the past 2 months than I can remember ever experiencing in my life.

The First SMF House!

One week after my return to Kosova I moved into a house.  It is a great setup both for the foundation and for me.  The upper part of the house was destroyed by fire, and later by flooding, and no one has lived here for quite some time so the outside looks quite bad—the front yard is overgrown with weeds and tall grass, and the front entrance has wooden supports as if it was under construction.   But the downstairs half of the house is quite nice.  It consists of a bedroom, one small room (a bedroom, but soon to become our office) a living room, kitchen, bathroom (with a shower—the first I’ve seen in Kosova!), a garage, and even a washing machine.  We will be setting up a computer-training center in the office, and use the living room for teacher training and activities.

Fall 2001, Rreza Teaching Volunteer Training in our house

The rent is approximately $225, which is a normal “local” rent, but very low for an “international” person, most of who are making very large salaries.  But when they learned that I have not been paid a salary since beginning this project, they agreed to rent it to me at the local rate.  A family living in Belgium owns it.  I have had to spend a lot of time and money cleaning and fixing things in the house to make it secure for our computers and instruments, and to make it a good workplace for our team here and habitable for me.  The biggest problems were bad locks, mildew from the previous flood, and flooding in the bathroom whenever the toilet and shower were used.  Or so I thought.

SMF-Handikos Youth Volunteer Computer Training in our House

But when I rented the house I agreed to let the owners stay here (with me) for two weeks when they visited from Belgium.  I wasn’t looking forward to it, because it meant delaying the setup for computer and teacher training, but I knew that it would be extremely difficult to find another setup as perfect as this, so I agreed.  But I wasn’t told when the family would come, or how many people would be coming.  Then, last Sunday, I was told that the family would be coming the next day, and that it would be four people: the owner and his wife, and their son and his wife.  I quickly moved everything into the large bedroom so that they could use the other bedroom and the living room.  They arrived at 2am on Monday.  They were very nice.  But they took over the entire house.  And they never left.  Their friends and relatives all came here, day and night.  Suddenly I was living in only one room, surrounded by people I didn’t know, but paying for an entire house.

Village Outreach Project Training, Fall 2001, in our house

And then they told me that they were actually staying not for two weeks, but for two MONTHS!  I didn’t know what to do. I knew that in retrospect this would be very funny, but at the time it was just making me miserable.  I didn’t want to move, but I didn’t see any other solution.

Finally, I sat down with the family and told them that I would be moving out because I really needed to have the entire house, not just one room.  I couldn’t postpone the computer and teacher training until September.  And I really needed some privacy after being with children all day and into the evening.  They said that they didn’t want me to move, so we agreed that after a few weeks they would go stay with their family in Gjakove.

I absolutely love the Eastman School of Music.  The students there are amazingly talented and hardworking.  It is the top school of music in the US, the students are completely overwhelmed by how much work they have to do to succeed there, and yet they have formed a club to support the Shropshire Music Foundation, and have raised more money than any other school for us.

They are wonderful.  I love them.

Every year I speak to the Freshman Colloquium at Eastman.  This very large class is mandatory for all incoming freshmen and transfer students, so I get to speak to every single Eastman student.  I love it.  Every year, at the end of the lecture, students ask what they can do to get involved.  Three years ago they formed the “EASTMAN FOR SHROPSHIRE MUSIC FOUNDATION” club and they have been extremely active ever since.  We are now discussing the possibility of a student group coming to Eastman as a Study/Service Abroad trip.  I hope it happens!

Midnight Ramblers Rehearsal

Last Friday, Oct 1, they organized a benefit concert for us.  Interestingly, they didn’t have groups from Eastman perform.  Rather, they selected two music groups from the University of Rochester’s main campus.  (Eastman is part of the U of R)

Liz With Midnight Ramblers After Their Performance

The first group who performed were the MIDNIGHT RAMBLERS, an all-male a cappella group who were not only excellent singers but really fun performers.  They are all U of R students.  As a part of their set they performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” while I showed slides in the background of the wars affects on Kosovo, Uganda and N Ireland.

Walri in Rehearsal

The second group was Rochester’s most popular Independent band WALRI.  They are all U of R graduates—two in Physics and two from the Eastman School of Music.   Their music is interesting, intelligent, and fun.  We couldn’t stop dancing to it from the lobby, where we had a display of photos and information about SMF.

Walri Live at the Concert!

The concert was organized by Garrett Rubin and Hannah Picasso-Hobin.  Garrett is the president of the Eastman for SMF club, and came to Kosovo last summer.  Hannah did an amazing Senior Project about SMF last summer and taught an entire class how to play pennywhistle.  They are both amazing.  In addition, there were 8 Eastman students who manned the tickets and helped with everything else.  The grand total raised was over $1200.  A fantastic amount that will really help us reach more children!!

I still can’t get over these amazing, amazing students.  I love them.  I hope more universities will get involved with SMF!

Xheraldina, Summer 2009

My name is Xheraldina Abrashi.  I am 15 years old and in the 10th grade.

During the wartime my family and I were staying at our house, but the Serbians destroyed it.  Then we stayed at our uncle’s house.   At that time I was 4 years old and I can still remember the views and noises that I heard.  Anyway, now I’m very happy and I have a good life, trying to forget things that happened before.

Xheraldina (center) with Poema and Edona, Spring 2010

When I was 11 one of my cousins told me about this organization and the work they do.  I was interested to be a part of it.  First, some teenage volunteers started to teach me and others a lot of songs and instruments.  Then when I finished the 8th grade, I became a volunteer too.  SMF means a lot to me, because I’ve met a lot of new friends and it’s a great activity for me to be part of.   This program is very good and helpful for the kids.  They can forget bad moments through the music, trying to have a good time with others.  I like to be a volunteer and teach the children.  For the future, I’m going to continue being a volunteer, study, get a good job and have a family.

Xheraldina with her class at YM School, Summer 2010

I apologize for being so absent the last few weeks.  I’m back online now and plan to post 2-3 times each week from now on.

Aug 31, 2010. We took most of the volunteers out to get a picture before the sun set, but it started raining so we really had to hurry and finish

The summer in Kosovo ended really well.  The last week before I leave is always crazy with End of Summer Concerts, fixing our music books, writing new songs, taking volunteer pictures, and trying to fit in extra training with the Youth Volunteers that I didn’t finish during the summer.  This year held 2 days of intensive training before I left, and it was a great way to end the summer.  We reviewed songs that we haven’t taught the children in awhile, and we learned new songs including Albanian Folk Songs, fun songs like “A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea” (with the 2-person hand clapping), and more intense message-songs, such as “Let There Be Peace On Earth, and Let It Begin With Me”.  Miri, One of our Youth Volunteers, did a beautiful translation of this song into Albanian, including changing the line “with God as our father, brothers all are we” to “with music as our passion, brothers all are we”. The translated Albanian version is beautiful and I am sure it will become a favorite.  (And thanks to speed contests among the volunteers, “A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea”, is already a volunteer favorite!)

We arrived first in the jeep and took a few pictures before the rest of the group arrived

We are very careful that our program is never religious.  Sometimes we have to change a word or two in a song about peace.  So many children in our program and around the world are victims of wars where religion is used as a weapon.  It’s happening right now in many places.  We don’t want any children, in any country, to ever feel that they don’t belong in our program—or be stopped from participating–because of their religion, ethnicity, home (or lack of home), refugee status, or any other reason.  Our goal is to teach tolerance and build self-esteem among these children who have lost and been through so much.

By now the rain was really coming down so this was the last shot we took

As part of the 2-day training we also taught the volunteers some games for them to start playing with the children in our singing classes. Each game teaches something about how we develop habits, goal setting, kindness, unity, gratitude, trust, etc.  I’m hopeful that playing these games and discussing them afterwards will give the children an opportunity to think about these things that are so important.

I’ve been back in the US for a week now and I’m still jetlagged.  I keep thinking it will get easier the more times I do the transatlantic switch, but the opposite seems to be true.  So I apologize if this has seemed disjointed and I promise better blogs in the future!

Group Picture Before the Concert

Albanian Folk Song "Doli Liza" With Harmonicas Above!

I’ve been so busy for the last few weeks that I haven’t been able to write anything, and things are still completely crazy busy. But we just had our end of summer concert here in Kosovo, so I wanted to post some pictures.  The kids did great and I’m really

Granit's Harmonica Class Performing

proud of the Youth Volunteers who worked so hard this summer to teach these children.

Pennywhistle Class in Concert

The concert was just for the Y Marina and Z Rexha School children.  We will be doing a concert in a few months with the children from our newer classes in the villages of Skivjan and Shishman.

I’m leaving Kosovo on Wednesday and will be back in the US the following Tuesday.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to post anything before then.  But I’ll get back to posting regular blogs in about 10 days, so stay tuned!

Burim Conducting "Titi Torea"

The view over Prizren

It is hard to believe that I am more than half way through my stay in Kosovo, having been in Gjakovë for ten days. Somehow it feels as though I have been here a lifetime. With each day I fall more and more in love with this country, the kosovar people and their culture. As I mentioned in my last post I have come to Kosovo to be trained in the SMF teaching method. The past six days have been especially exciting then, as I have had the opportunity to practice much of what I am learning.

After the group lesson that I gave the male youth volunteers on Tuesday I decided it would be both more effective and more manageable to work with the boys individually. Nick, one of our most enthusiastic and eager volunteers, was first to sign up for a lesson. I had a wonderful time teaching Nick but we weren’t without out challenges. Like many of the volunteers, Nick has trouble matching pitch. To improve his facility with identifying and internalizing pitch, I created an activity using simple pitch patterns. First, I asked Nick to play the pattern on his pennywhistle. Once he was familiar with the pattern, I asked him to sing the pitches in that same key. From there, we moved the pattern through different keys, having Nick produce the starting pitch from a triad given at the keyboard. Completing the exercise was a slow and tedious process but nick remained focused and determined throughout our entire session.

Playing music games with the SMF students

Since our first lesson, I have been standing near Nick  during singing class each day. As he has continued to practice the exercises I have assigned him, I have heard a  noticeable difference in Nick’s ability to identify and internalize the correct pitches. Hearing Nick sing “Yellow Submarine” in-tune yesterday morning was music to my ears!

Working with Nick was only one of many personally  inspiring teaching experiences that I have had this past  week. Aside from giving voice lessons to several of the  volunteers, I have been busy teaching in the classroom. Mostly, I help to lead and conduct singing classes. I have also been teaching our youngest students music games to help them learn note names and rhythmic values. While I have never entertained the idea of teaching, my time in Kosovo has awakened within me an interest and growing passion for teaching young people. There is nothing quite like watching a child fall in love with music and knowing you had a part in inspiring them to do so.

–

A Mosque in Prizren

The volunteers atop the Kalaja Ruins

Every Saturday Liz and Burim take the youth volunteers on a day-trip to show their appreciation for a week of hard work and dedication. This past Saturday we took the volunteers to Prizren, a city just 45-minutes from Gjakovë. Prizren is often referred to as the crown jewel of Kosovo; it is, to say the least, gorgeous. Unlike Gjakovë, Prizren managed to avoid large-scale damage during the war. Thus, Prizren still has a large number of Ottoman era buildings. I especially loved seeing the Gazi Mehmet Pasha Hammam Turkish baths, which were built in 1573 and the Gazi Mehmet Pasha (or Bajrakli Mosque), which was built in 1566.

After we explored the city, the youth volunteers and I climbed two kilometers up a steep path to the Prizen Kalaja. While no one knows exactly when the castle was built, it has been suggested that the Kalaja dates back to the 6^th century. From atop the castle ruins there are breathtaking views of Prizren and the Pashtrik Mountain to north and Zhupa Valley to the south.

Sunday was spent with Leka, one of the SMF youth volunteers, and his lovely family. Before Leka took me to meet his family, I asked him to show me the Hadum Mosque. The Hadum is the oldest mosque in Gjakovë and although it was set afire by Serbian forces during the war, it was beautifully restored in 2005 to resemble its original form. Of equal importance is the graveyard on the Hadum grounds where the most important and influential Albanians of the city were buried.

The Hadum graveyard

After we visited the Hadum it was off to Lek’s flat for lunch. I should mention that while there are many things I love about Kosovo, I have developed a particular fondness for traditional Albanian food (my friends and family are completely surprised by this, I know). Moreover, because Kosovars pride themselves on being welcoming and hospitable, sharing food is central to culture here. For this reason, I have found that nothing says “thank you” or “I’m enjoying my time with you” like a big smile from a full stomach.

Luckily for me, Lek’s mother is a wonderful cook. She had spent the afternoon preparing a delicious chicken and rice dish, served with a light soup, fresh bread, feta cheese and tomato slices. Once we were through with lunch, Lek and his family loaded up their car and we headed to liqeni i Radoniqit, a lake just 15-minutes outside of the city. We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, sunbathing, eating watermelon and drinking Turkish coffee!

A view of the lake

That’s all for now – I can hear the midday call to prayer from outside my window, which means I have only a few hours left to prepare for tonight’s lessons.

Peace, love and quarter notes,

Garrett

A view over Gjakovë, August 1, 2010

Greetings from Gjakovë, Kosovo! My name is Garrett Rubin and I am a musician from Sacramento, California. I attend the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where I study classical voice performance and cultural diplomacy. At Eastman I am president of Eastman for the Shropshire Music Foundation,
a student organization that raises money for SMF. Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier to be in Kosovo with Liz, Burim and all of the wonderful SMF youth volunteers.

I arrived in Kosovo this past Saturday and was met by Liz and Burim at the Pristina Airport. The drive from Pristina to Gjakovë was an eye-opening experience in itself. Kosovo is doing major road construction so it took two and half hours over a mostly unpaved gravel road to reach Gjakovë. Driving through the countryside, the effects of Kosovo’s high poverty rates were obvious. Many of the buildings and homes that we drove past were in very bad condition, having either been poorly rebuilt or not rebuilt at all after the war. Some structures still had large bullet holes across their exteriors.

Garrett with youth volunteers, July 31, 2010

Once in Gjakovë I was taken to the SMF house as the youth  volunteers had organized a welcome party for me! I was  thrilled to meet this group of young people that I had already  heard so much about. We had a great time together – they  taught me Albanian phrases and traditional Albanian folk  dances (both of which I need to practice!) At the end of the  night we sat in a circle and they each explained why they  enjoy teaching for SMF. It became clear that this is a  dedicated and bright group of teenagers, all of whom love  music and believe in its power to heal and help others.

On Sunday two of the youth volunteers, Jeta and Edona, spent the day showing me around Gjakovë. Jeta and Edona are sisters and have been in the program for two years. Edona is older and she describes herself as a dedicated student interested in pursing the best education possible. Currently, she is a student at the Gymnasium, Gjakovë’s best high school. Her sister Jeta will be entering high school this fall. She is an extremely talented and accomplished musician. She plays the flute beautifully and as the other volunteers will tell you, she is one of the best singers in the program.

The girls showed me all of Gjakove. As I learned, practically the entire city was destroyed in the bombings and fires of the war, so most of the buildings and homes that stand today are new or rebuilt structures. My favorite part of the city is the Old Town, which was rebuilt to replicate the traditional Albanian buildings lost in the war. The architecture in Old Town is beautiful and shows a strong and surprising east-meets-west influence.

After my city tour, Jeta and Edona took me to meet their parents. Their father and mother are similar in character to all of the Albanians I have met: kind, welcoming and open. Unsurprisingly then, their mother had prepared a traditional Albanian meal for me: feta and noodle soup to start and chicken cooked with tomatoes, rice, onion and spices. Lunch was served with fresh homemade bread and a thick, yogurt-like dairy drink. To describe this food as delicious would be an understatement.

Students from the IDP camp, August 2, 2010

While we were eating, their mother expressed her most sincere and deep thanks to me for what America did to help Kosovo establish its independence. Her sentiments echo that of most Kosovars, who appreciate the US military intervention in the Balkans.
—
The SMF Kosovo program runs Monday through Friday at four different sites in and around Gjakove. On Mondays and Thursdays, we teach a large group at the Yll Marina school in Gjakove; on Tuesdays and Fridays, a group from one of
the remaining refugee camps (or, more accurately, IDP camps) comes to the SMF house to work with Liz and a few of the youth volunteers while the remaining youth volunteers travel to Skivjan to work with children there; and on Wednesdays we go to a school in the village
of Shishman fifteen minutes from the city.

In addition, every weeknight the youth volunteers come to
the SMF house for training, which usually runs from 7:30 to 10:30. In the training classes, the youth volunteers are taught penny whistle, harmonica, singing, ukulele, drumming, guitar and conducting. This summer Liz has also added a classical music appreciation class. As a musician trained in the states, I was surprised by both the quality of education that these programs offer and level of musicianship that they foster.

I came to Gjakovë to be trained as a teacher in the SMF method. Mostly, I am watching Liz and Burim teach so that I can learn how they do what they do. Yesterday, however, I had the opportunity to teach a group lesson. Because many of the youth volunteers have no previous singing or music making experience prior to their participation in the SMF programs, many struggle with internalizing pitch. This is especially true of the males, which is to be expected developmentally for their age group as singing is usually more challenging for boys than girls. To help, I gave the male volunteers a group voice lesson! It was my very first teaching experience and while we had a lot of fun, I realized just how much I have to learn about teaching music. Luckily, I have Liz and Burim to learn from…

Laberim in drumming class, August 2, 2010

Giving the group voice lesson made me even more appreciative of Liz and the work she does. Having observed three days of classes and trainings, I can tell
you that the SMF Kosovo programs are nothing short of spectacular. The structure and method that Liz has developed over the past eleven years does far more than teach music proficiency. Through these classes, the kids are learning life skills necessary to become successful adults: confidence, work ethic, analytical thinking and a capacity for self-expression. There is a particular need for this type of education here in Kosovo and the effects the program is having on the kids is obvious. The older youth volunteers that have been in the program since they were young exhibit characteristics that are not common of many of their Kosovar peers. Most have or are working on college degrees and they all speak passionately about different careers and interests. Each will tell you that they wouldn’t be where they are today without Liz and the Shropshire Music Foundation.

… more to come! I am in Kosovo for another week and half and hope to update the blog every few days.
Peace, love and quarter notes,
Garrett