I had breakfast in Woodmead one Saturday morning with my fiancé and her sister. Out of the blue this group of kids from Soweto rocked up with steel drums, trumpets, tubas, a drum kit and xylophones. They were kitted out in soccer shirts and big smiles all around and started playing music and singing to everyone in the food court's surprise for a good solid two hours or so. Anything from "Hope Johanna", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to K'Naans's "Wavin; Flag". They were brilliant and young and old some with babies in strollers sporting soccer shirts cheered, clapped and joined in the singing.
I happened to have my video camera on me and filmed a little bit of it.
During their lunch break, I approached the guy who seemed to be in charge of the group, Michael Rea. He is a Canadian and has been living in South Africa for ten years and runs a corporate social responsibility program. I did a quick camera interview with him and two of the kids, Nyiko and Nina. The group of 30 or so kids call themselves the Soweto Marimba Youth League and Michael has taken them abroad to Canada on two occasions as well, where the local Canadian community pitches in and helps the kids out as well. After spending only ten minutes with two of the kids I could see that this project truly has touched their lives.
They have 7 basic core values that define them of which education is first and foremost:
- Education first
- Shared commitment
- Avoid drugs & alcohol
- Avoid crime
- Avoid pregnancy
- Respect others
- Environmental protection
They play corporate gigs to raise money to run the charitable organization and this is how it works: They charge R100 per kid, of which half of that money goes to the kids themselves for pocket money. The other half gets paid into a trust from which the kids can ask money for educational purposes, be it books, uniforms, clothes or whatever they may need to attain their first goal: Education first.
Don't take my word for it, listen to Michael explaining exactly what they do and Nyiko and Nina explaining how being part of such a group has changed their lives for the better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHOrAmyzs40
The Soweto Marimba Youth League have also recorded a CD of which 4000 copies were pressed. They hope to fund their next trip to Canada with the sales of this CD.
Some upcoming gigs during the World Cup period will include:
- June 11 and July 11 the team will perform for Coca Cola South Africa’s guests at the Crowne Plaza (the old Rosebank Hotel) as they prepare to board their buses to Soccer City…for the opening and closing games. The hotel manager expects up to 600 people at each event, and the kids are ready and raring to go with a 2-hour set per performance.
- July 9 the team will perform for Coca Cola South Africa’s guests at the Palace of the Lost City Hotel (Sun City)…and each of CCSA’s guests will receive a copy of our ‘Rhythm Under African Skies’ CD.
- June 25, the team will perform for Anglo Platinum (Anglo American) on Main Street in the CBD…at AA plc’s corporate head offices.
For more information and a chance to give some very talented youngsters a better future, visit http://www.smyle.co.za
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