“Afghan Music Students Take Their Show on the Road”, skriver Verdensbanken på sit website og bringer en lille solstrålefortælling midt i den barske virkelighed i det krigshærgede (og lige nu meget kolde) centralasiatiske land.
WASHINGTON, 17th January 2013: In February, students from the Afghanistan National Institute of Music will play at the Kennedy Center in Washington and Carnegie Hall in New York.
The school, supported by the World Bank, trains students, many of them orphans (forældreløse) and former street vendors (gadehandlere), in Afghan and Western music – once forbidden in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s little trumpet girls have the giggles (fniser). It is just too funny, trying to explain how they were selected from an orphanage (børnehjem) to study at the country’s most prestigious new music school.
“We are just so very, very good,” 10-year-old Khalida Safai manages to boast before another belly laugh overtakes her.
But when her instructor gives the signal, Khalida takes a quick glance at her partner, Meena Zinat, 9, gives a few toe taps for syncopation (rytmen), makes an impressive lip pucker, and both little girls blast out “Hot Cross Buns,” with the best of them.
Actually, they are the best. In fact, they are the only trumpet girls in Afghanistan.
Ahmad Sarmast´s vision
And like 140 other students, they are part of a promising vision long pursued by Ahmad Sarmast.
Sarmast returned to his homeland from Australia in 2006, determined to create the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in his war-torn country. It took years of lobbying, organizing, and fundraising before the school finally opened its doors in 2010.
This February, the school’s students will embark on a long-planned US tour that will take them to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Carnegie Hall in New York.
The tour is sponsored by the World Bank, the US Department of State, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Asian Cultural Council.
The World Bank was among the earliest donors to ANIM, and is now helping fund construction of a 300-seat concert hall, which will help the school become self-supporting, and a dormitory (sovesal) for disadvantaged students.
The Bank supports the school as part of its Afghanistan Skills Development Project, which aims to improve vocational education.
Funding for the project is provided by the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) and the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.
Læs videre på
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2013/01/17/afghan-music-students-take-show-on-road
Begynd fra: “The school is situated not far from Kabul’s historic…”
