EAMTS project 2004 - Working with children in Mostar

Here you find four different reports on the last EAMTS project in Bosnia and Herzegowina. First there is a a letter by Spela Lotti Knoll, followed by a link for a detailed report in German. Then you can read the emails we received from project members short after or during the project. Enjoy reading...

Mostar Project 2004

Zdravo!

I am very happy to write this report about the first Mostar Project that took place in September 2004 and at the same time invite enthusiastic music therapy students to join in for the Second Mostar Project that will happen in September 2005.

It is actually quite difficult to say what the main motivation for a project like this is, since there are several important issues to consider either regarding the setting, the type of work and international group of music therapy students that find themselves in a unique experience. All these aspects merge with each other throughout the time of the project. I will shortly stress the most important features that took place in this year's project.

In a time frame of three and half weeks eight music therapy students met for the first time in Germany for the preparation weekend. Spending this time together meant a lot in the ways of getting to know each other and forming a group atmosphere before coming to Bosna and starting to work there. It was a short but meaningful time for the students.

After the arrival there were important tasks to deal with. We had to form our pairs for working with children, talk to the managers of the places where we worked (Centre for Children with special needs and the Orphanage), make a nice place where we were living the next three weeks and getting familiar with Mostar and its culture.

There was never a lot of time to rest. Our motivation was focussed on the children that we worked with and how to find the balance between the recreational and therapeutical nature of the work. This meant a lot of mutual understanding and support within our group and help from the supervision provided by the local Pavarotti music therapy centre.

Beside the work with children we engaged in more general presentation of music therapy by making presentations for local schools, centres for people with special needs and psychiatric institutes. A special event was the culmination of our cooperation with young Bosnian music therapists trying to establish this profession there, when we successfully brought to life the first music therapy seminary in Sarajevo.

While the work was so concentrated, we planed the time to move away from it over the weekends. We visited the Croatian coast and made short trips in the local area. This helped us to relax and fill our energy.
The finally results from the project were so warmly appreciated by the institutions and the people in Mostar, asking us to come back, that we decided to return and carry on with our work . Like they said, the smiles on the faces of the children were what we came for to Mostar.

I would like to invite all music therapy students who want to gain similar experience and work in a war effected area to join the Second Mostar project in September 2005. The frame of the project will stay similar, trying to be more aware of including both cultural parts of Mostar- Muslim and Croatian equally and in terms of sustainability offering wider educational support for people working in possible music therapy settings.

When I speak from my own experience, a project like this is enriching: for you as a music therapy student, Mostar itself, children there and people trying their best to help them. With our knowledge and belief in the difference that music therapy can make, I again invite you to join our next voyage.

DOVIDJENJA U MOSTARU!

Spela Loti Knoll, Slovenija
Music therapy student at APU, Cambridge; Project Manager for the EAMTS

The team of the project 2004
(from left to right):


Robbie v.Alphen - Netherlands,
Verena Heidenreich - Germany,
Andreas Frankl - Germany,
Spela Knoll - Slovenia,
Constanze Bürger - Germany,
Sofie Andersen - Denmark,
Brechtje Hallo - Netherlands,
Inge Smiet - Netherlands

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There is a detailed report from 25.11.2004 - unfortunately only available in German. If you like to read it please click here.

This letter we received by the project team in Bosnia on 15^th September 2004:

Here we are, sitting in a small internet cafe in Mostar. After meeting almost everybody in Heidelberg, Sofie and me went by Euroline bus to Mostar. The rest followed by our own little van. Locals in the bus thought it was quite strange to see two clearly Western European girls in this bus, and weren't shy to tell us this. It took us 23 hours, and by arrival we only had a telephone number we could show our taxi driver, because the name of the Egyptian village had been too difficult to understand through the phone.

Miraculously, he took us to the orphanage (= foster home for children without parents) at once. For a clearly western European price, that is. We all had one day to recover from our journeys, and much had to be prepared that one day. We had to make couples to give the workshops. The groups had to be arranged and we had to prepare ourselves for the next day.

Chaos arrived after two minutes in our workshops (or as we were calling them after a week: sessions). Red-faced, sweaty and with question marks in our eyes the couples would return from the sessions. How would we survive this chaos for three weeks? Our groups hadn't the age we were told, were smaller or bigger and we had troubles working non-verbally.

The weekend we spent relaxing in the sun and getting some energy back. We went to a small village called Zuljana, where we just enjoyed the sun and each other. Sunday we went to Dubrovnic to walk around as tourists, but in a good way. When we returned we felt like coming home, and we all felt Mostar is growing on us.

On Monday a translator from the Pavarotti centre showed us around through the hills of Mostar. He told a lot about the political situation and his views on the war. This left a big impression because some of the underlined feelings we felt in the streets were spoken out loud.

In the afternoon there was time to debrief and reflect on our first impressions and the emotions we had. Now we are all set for a new week. Most teams have had their next couple of workshops. Some of us are involved in additional activities as a samba workshop, organizing informative meetings in Mostar and a symposium in Sarajevo.

We agreed to take on some more work in order to get as much experience as possible. The team is very motivated and works hard, so we have the feeling we can move mountains in our short stay.

Next week there will be another update.

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This letter we received on 28^th September by Brechtje Hallo:

To all;

At this moment in time the whole team has arrived back in their own countries. Sofie, after 42 hours in the bus, as well as Andreas, who went by Euroliner back to Frankfurt. The rest of us went by car. It was a beautiful drive back, via the coast of Kroatia and we spend the night in a small town in Slovenia, where we had a warm welcome.

On our travel		... chillin'...

In our second weekend we had some time off to do what we wanted. On Sunday we all met in Sarajevo, to walk around and prepare ourselves for the first Music Therapy Seminary in Bosnia Herzegovina. This would take place the next day. The place was a school for special needs in Sarajevo, where the staff of the school, a few outsiders and Bosnian MT Students met.
We did presentations on different subjects: an introduction about the EAMTS, a case study, a research, an introduction of MT and a practical workshop. There were also other presentations by people from outside the team. The whole day was a big succes, we had inspired the audience by our presentations, and everybody left with a great feeling of somthing big that had happened, and we felt lucky to be a part of that. There will most likely be a next seminary.

In the third week we were very busy. Some of us had arranged a singular workshop on the westside, in a centre for special needs. This was very important for us, because until then we had only worked on the east side. We arranged an informative workshop in a pychiatric wing of the hospital on the east side. It was interesting to see that even the clients were in the workshop, and it was the first MT contact, so all very new and interesting.

Our last night in the orphanage we had a small party with the children. This was the very first day of rain we had, unfortunately, and we had to change our plan. So we did a bit of singing, dancing and acrobatics in the sportshall, after Andreas performed to us as a firespitter. After that, we had invited some of our friends from Mostar, and had a small party there.

Bridge of Mostar		Mostar from above

The following Saturday morning we departed with some of the children waving goodbye to us. It was a big goodbye. All of us left with big emotions. It was hard to say goodbye to the children, who don't have so many adults giving them the attention they need. Mostar had been our home for a few weeks, and all of us felt sad to leave. There was only so much we could do in the three weeks, and so much more to be done. Next year we will be back.

That's all for this project. Please continue to look on our website for pictures and more interesting stories from the other teammembers.

With kind regards, Brechtje Hallo.

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