45 inner-city youth trained by Food For The Poor
FORTY-FIVE youths from the inner-city have been trained and provided with musical instruments under Food For The Poor Jamaica’s Summer Band Camp initiative.
The students, who are from communities located in Kingston, St Catherine and Clarendon, graduated on August 12. They were trained free of cost between July 21 and August 8 on the recorder, flute, clarinet, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, bass drum, snare drum, drum, and tri-tom.
David Mair, executive director for Food For The Poor, congratulated the students on committing to the objectives of the programme and gaining a skill in the music industry.
“You are among 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 actualise on your talent,” Mair said.
Errol Lee, founder and manager of Bare Essentials Band, and 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. “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. Actualise 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.”
Jeffrey Brown, field officer at Food For The Poor, said all the students enrolled in the camp were encouraged to form a Food For The Poor band.
The 45 youngsters will thus return to the grounds of Food For The Poor on the last Saturday each month to practise and better develop their musical talents and skills. They will also be given the opportunity to learn other musical instruments.
This year’s Food For The Poor Summer Band Camp hosted students between six and 16 years of age. Since the inception of the programme six years ago, more than 100 youth have been trained.
