"I almost experienced that a Roma girl does not know when she was born, nor the exact date, nor the season. I remember exactly that conversation, we asked her when she was born, she got completely confused, she said she thought it snowed then, but she wasn't sure. Her name is Monika", a psychology student once told me. It is a fact that an extremely large percentage of Roma children live in families that do not have a permanent residence, live illegally in informal settlements and belong to the category of absolute poverty - their families do not earn more than 12.000 dinars per month.
The project "Music of Hope" is implemented in Zemun Primary School "Branko Pešić", attended by Roma children, whose goal is social inclusion and development of children through music. This is a unique program in Serbia, created in partnership with the EI Sistema program, which UNESCO declared to be the best socially inclusive program in the world. Đurđa Papazoglu, executive and artistic director of the program, pedagogue and pianist, says that more than 2.500 children in eleven cities of Serbia have gone through this program. The "Music of Hope" program was launched by the Music Art Project (MAP). The program is free and non-selective in admission, therefore it is available to children from vulnerable communities, especially those affected by poverty, without parental care, children of single parents, recipients of social assistance, internally displaced persons and migrants.
"The children we work with in the 'Branko Pešić' elementary school come from families of internally displaced persons, who did not cope with the wave of emigration from Kosovo. Those families mostly sought their fortune in the European countries from which they were regularly returned. Their children carry all these traumas with them, without wishes, even though their needs are there. Only they, very often, neither show them nor know they have them", says Đurđa Papazoglu.
We talked so much that the principal led me into the classroom where three girls were waiting for me with cahons, percussion instruments from Latin America: Mimoza Alija (13), Selma Sulja (11) and Valentina Trajković (15).
Valentina has been in the program for the longest time and works as a mentor in the percussion section with the younger students of that school. All three sing in a choir, and now they catch the rhythm on percussion instruments. They say that they would like to have more instruments, there was also a violin until the music teacher went on maternity leave. Valentina also attends acting classes and dreams of becoming a singer and actress. Mimosa says that they have a good time in the music workshop, that they are like a small family brought together by music. Maybe at the beginning they were a little reluctant to talk to the newspaper, it didn't take long, they talked about where they all performed with the choir: at the National Theater in the opera "Children" by Milena Marković, where they sing four of the seventeen songs, in the Great Hall of the Kolarc Foundation in 2021 . (it was the best for them, as they say), in Dorćol plac...
There are about sixty of them in the project, aged from 8 to 19 years old, these older ones are mentors, they meet three times a week. They talk in Serbian, Romani, Albanian, and sometimes in the languages of the countries where they stayed with their parents in search of bread. Since 2021, Aleksandar Radulović, percussionist of the Belgrade Philharmonic, has been working with them, teaching them techniques and rhythms on instruments such as congas, cahons, dairas and shakers. In cooperation with Radulović, the older group composed the song "Đulijan". Professor Radmila Knežević, a cellist, teaches them singing and sheet music. He says that the children themselves wrote the lyrics to the music of their choice and it was a song Shape of You Ed Sheeran. They called it "Love Song", and it sounds like a kind of hymn on tarabukas, a combination of Balkan ethnic music and Latin rhythms.
A dozen cahons were placed on the stage in the hall and the children slowly arrived and sat down next to the instruments. Senior mentor Aleksandar Trajković and Đurđa Papazoglu gave the rhythm. "The school is their refuge, where dedicated pedagogues and music teachers teach them to strengthen not only their knowledge, but also their attitude towards the world. More precisely, to open up, believe in cooperation, learn to clearly communicate their needs and believe that they are equal. Because they, even though they should be, are constantly denied", explains the director of the program.
The "Music of Hope" program organizes children's cooperation with surrounding schools, both musical and elementary, in order to develop a relationship with each other. "The idea is for the integration to take place gradually, because too quickly inserting children into a system that does not offer a welcome does not produce sustainable results. Those children return to the street again, not believing in school, which should be a place that empowers them. And their parents don't believe it either, because they themselves are from the category of unqualified labor without having finished school."
The program, together with the school, has the task of building a strong relationship with the family through the child, thereby changing their habits. "For example, to dispel the idea of arranged child marriages as much as possible, not condemning, but still insisting on children's rights and the unacceptability of such practices. So that, when this is the case with minor children under the age of 16, it is made clear to the parents that, in addition to educating both children and parents, all available means will be used to prevent that marriage. Quite often, parents, mothers accompanying small children to school stay at the classes themselves, since "Branko Pešić" was also a school for adults after its founding, through the "Second Chance" program, which since the arrival of displaced persons from Kosovo has become a primary school. a school for all disadvantaged children. 'Music of Hope' helps children to go one step further, which pulls them out of apathy and depression. It teaches them cooperation, awakens inventiveness, music helps them get rid of the many traumas that are stored in their small bodies. Due to these same traumas, it is harder for them to concentrate and it is harder for them to study consistently."
TO BREAK DOWN AND FIT IN
Ivana Radojević, professional associate and psychotherapist in the program, says that working with students, whose family and life stories resemble those about which someone would like to write a book or a movie script, requires, first of all, great patience, acceptance and, of course, trust. Therefore, it is often not very important what one's profession is. Both the psychologist and the pedagogue and the special education teacher and the teacher do very similar things in contact with them: they can bear and deal with their various statements, thoughts, feelings and events, as well as their intensity. "A mitigating circumstance is that they are not evaluated and do not stay in the classroom, so young people are more ready to connect with us. Students like to come to one-on-one conversations, and we like when they trust us. The problems we most often encounter are related to conflict resolution, first with parents, and then with others. There are also internal conflicts that exist between the need to satisfy the demands of tradition, that is, the needs of parents, and the need to break away and fit into contemporary social trends that oppose tradition. The problems that stress them are related to their immature personality structures and unfavorable living conditions, inherited behavioral styles and cultural differences. They are prone to defensive behavior and raw emotional discharge as ways to resolve conflicts. They are afraid of condemnation, rejection, humiliation and punishment", says psychotherapist Ivana Radojević.
He adds that the key to the progress of Roma children is continuous encouragement throughout schooling and throughout life. "Encouragement has several stages, which range from creating a close relationship, sincere interest in the child, monitoring behavior, planning activities, carrying out activities through trials and errors, disciplined meeting with the child, working with his environment, carefully implementing praise and rewards, questioning motives , goals and methods of work and carefully offering advice and suggestions." According to her, parents quickly gain trust and recognize benevolence, but this sometimes takes the form of leaving a large part of their responsibility to the schools, freeing themselves from stress, engagement and obligations. "Then we are forced to accept the state of affairs that speaks of their unwillingness and lower capacity for cooperation and change, and we do what we can: we guide, encourage, sympathize and celebrate small and large successes, both theirs and ours."
AWARENESS OF THEMSELVES AND THE SPACE THEY ARE IN
The singing methodology is harmonized with well-known European pedagogues and institutions, such as the method of the conductor of the Viennese Boys' Choir, Gerald Wirth, or the percussionist from the university in Spain. The program was originally developed by a percussion ensemble at the school and is led by the experienced baton of Aleksandar Radulović, percussionist of the Belgrade Philharmonic. In addition to percussion, children learn musical literacy and choir. "We would like the school to have its own orchestra and establish cooperation with other Belgrade children who play music in Zemun and Belgrade. Such cooperation was realized through summer camps (2021) within the framework of the European project 'Tomorrow begins today', but also through smaller initiatives of exceptional professors from other Belgrade music schools", says the director of the program.
Radmila Knežević, a cellist, joined the program a few months ago and, in addition to music, teaches children regularity, persistence, patience and responsibility. "I tell the children that they cannot immediately jump six meters high like Sergej Bupka, that they must learn to be aware of themselves and the space they are in." If they don't do well from the start, continues the music teacher, they are overcome by a sense of shame and are a priori against it. But, as was seen on the stage where they played as a group, a child who would have said he couldn't play, with a little encouragement and support, sat down to the instrument and caught the rhythm after a few tries.
The director of the program emphasizes how important it is for the community to try to put itself in "their shoes" and imagine the consequences of children whose parents live under the permanent stress of financial uncertainty, who are therefore unable to meet their emotional needs. They live in a state of constant rejection which, in addition to the fact that they are poor, is reinforced by the color of their skin. "Poverty has profound consequences for children. They believe that they are invisible, unimportant, that no one notices them and that they do not deserve love. For them, playing music is a way to realize that they are worth it, that they can achieve much, even much more than they themselves expected."
