Coming back from an extraordinary experience at the World Economic Forum, my greatest challenge now is to make the Haiti Music School a scalable, efficient, and sustainable project.
Haiti: the poorest country of the western hemisphere, unemployment levels reaching its highest rates, a place where people still suffer from the tragic earthquake that ruined the nation.
The Haiti Music School started in January, 2011, a symbol of hope to the nation, a project that reached about 80 people in Port-au-Prince. It was a 5-day workshop in which we taught music theory, guitar, keyboards, drums and flute. We donated more than 100 instruments, and dedicated ourselves to pass on the knowledge to the Haitian musicians, so that they would teach young people and generate opportunities for the future of the community.
“So, what now?” I hear from many people.
“Now that the seed is planted, we just need to hope that they water it so it grows.”
I believe that sustainable development of poor communities depends much on the effort of the community leaders and the people’s motivation. That is why music is such a relevant tool to make this happen – it reaches people’s hearts.
Anyhow, it is an enormous challenge to have a structure and daily classes in the Music School. The teachers have methods, instruments, and students. But they lack the building and the organization to make something ordered and frequent. As I talked to Mark Johnson, from Playing for Change at the World Economic Forum, I tried to make a partnership so that the Music School might be built. I learned that if we want to reach higher, we must be willing to share our dreams with others and walk together with them.
Haiti needs help, and the problem is far from over. But what I hope is that the people have motivation to live, inspiration to dream, and courage to reconstruct the nation.
So I heard Keiichiro Asao, a Member of the House of Representatives of Japan, say in a speech about disaster relief: “in a moment like this, all we need is hope. People need hope to find strength to live.”
So may hope be our language, may it be what we spread to the world, even when there seems to be no light on the end of the tunnel.
