FORTY-FIVE inner-city youth have received music training and have been given musical instruments by Food For The Poor (FFP) Jamaica at the charity’s sixth annual Summer Band Camp.

The students, who are from communities in Kingston, St Catherine and Clarendon, were handed their musical instruments at a graduation ceremony on the grounds of Food For The Poor located in Ellerslie Pen, St Catherine on Tuesday.

They were trained free of cost between July 21 and August 8 by Jeffrey Brown, field officer at Food For The Poor, with lessons for the recorder, flute, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, bass drum, snare drum, drum and tri-tom.

David Mair, executive director for FFP, congratulated the students on committing to the objectives of the programme and gaining a skill in one area of the music industry.

“You are amongst a wonderfully chosen group of Jamaicans to have been taught how to play a musical instrument. Now that Food For The Poor has given you training and the instruments you were trained with, the onus is on you to hone your talent,” Mair said.

Founder and manager of Bare Essentials Band Errol Lee, who was the guest speaker at the graduation ceremony, told the participants that they were given a foundation on which they needed to build.

“All of you are very special,” Lee said. “The reason why I say this is because out of every 100 people in the world, only one can play music, and all 45 of you here can play music. Therefore, you are special.”

“With what you have been taught in the last three weeks, do not sit in the background all the time. Add to what you have been taught. Try to expose yourselves to new things and don’t stick to one career choice. You can have more than one career with one being in the music industry,” Lee said.

Last Saturday, all 45 participants returned for practice on the grounds of Food For The Poor as part of a plan to form a Food for the Poor Band.