Outreach

Teachers from all three branches of the ESNCM commit several hours each week to travel to schools and refugee camps throughout Palestine to teach children taking part in the ESNCM outreach program. The projects provide students with access to an instrument free of charge, and one great sign of the scheme’s success, is that some students have recently given back these instruments after purchasing their own.

The outreach program was established by the ESNCM in 1996, in order to reach a wider section of Palestinian society and to enable underprivileged children to learn music, by bringing music to their own environment. The first programs involved children from refugee camp schools who had never had the privilege of music education. In 1998 the outreach program became fully inaugurated when the ESNCM delegated a number of its teachers to give violin and cello lessons at Rawdat Al-Zuhour in Jerusalem and at Al-Bireh Girls School, teaching music to children from the age of 6 to 16 years.

Over the years, the scheme has expanded rapidly, and participants have included Rawdat Al-Zuhour, Al-Jalazoun UNRWA Girls School, Al-Amari UNRWA Girls School, Ramallah Primary UNRWA Girls School, Talitakumi School in Beit Jala, Al-Azza refugee camp, the “Intima’a” Social Youth Centre of Askar Camp in Nablus, the Jericho Children’s Centre and two primary schools in Jouret Al-Shama’a village (Bethlehem governorate) and in Douma (Hebron governorate). By 2007, a total of 163 students were part of the outreach program.

Two new centers were opened in the Tubas Governate in 2009, with a 36 student enrollment, and in Bidya in Salfeet governorate, with 28 students, in addition to a new center in Nelein, in the Ramallah governate, with 36 students recruited after a 4-day workshop of 60 participants in July, 2009. AIn summer 2010, the program started in Hebron in cooperation with two community centres, after a 4 day workshop with 60 participants. Currently, there are about 44 students in the program.