July Summer Music Camp for Children with Special Needs – Mostar and Brijuni.
Nigel Osborne led this year’s summer music camp in Blagaj near Mostar with the Los Rosales orphange and as guests of the Ulysses Theatre on the indescribably beautiful island of Veliki Brijuni with the Centre for Children with Special needs in Pula.
In total 90 children took part from Mostar and Pula, 32 volunteer students from the University of Edinburgh and 10 students of music, psychology and medicine from the regional universities of Croatia, primarily Pula and Rijeka. The Petrojvic Blasting Company, the extraordinary street band from Los Angeles provided great music.
The primary aim of the first camp in Mostar was to offer the children and young people from Los Rosales an enjoyable holiday and an exciting and therapeutic creative experience. The second camp supported the work of one of the main centres for special education in Istria.
The Music Department of the University of Edinburgh has been involved with therapeutic work in the Centre for Children with Special Needs in Pula since 1994, and the summer camp has become an important part of ongoing work. The objectives, amongst other things, are to help build towards social cohesion, communication, trust, reduction of fear, self-confidence, creativity and motivation.
This year 12 young people from Srebrenica, Potocari, Bratunac and Zvornik were invited to join the camp. This was made possible through the funding and organizational support of Opera Circus with the great help of Bauern Helfern Bauern in Austria and the OSCE in Sarajevo, BiH. The young people participated fully in the work with the children, being praised by Professor Osborne for their hard work and commitment. One of the highlights of the trip was a lunch hosted by Rade Serbedzije and Lenka Udovicki. The opportunities this summer camp provides will hopefully be offered to a wider group of young people in 2012.
Opera Circus is the lead organiser of an EU cultural programme called Wake Up, which is in its second year. The aims are to develop cultural partnerships and to promote cultural activity in particular youth leadership through music and theatre as well as to help influence national cultural policies. The other partners in Wake Up include The Institute of Music for Human and Social Development at the University of Edinburgh, UK, Teater Mimart of Belgrade, Serbia and Musicians without Borders both in BiH and the Netherlands. The Youth Council in Srebrenica is an associate partner.
Photograph by Lidjia Antonovic