M-LISADA - Music to the Rescue

Imagine a community of young people drawn together by music, who support themselves by performing, where music is played day-long and where all children receive free music lessons.  Sounds utopian?  Yes and no. M-LISADA stands for Music, Life Skills and Destitution Alleviation, and it's now a thriving children's home in Nsambya, Kampala that since its beginnings 15 years ago has reclaimed over 400 children from the streets.  I visited for their Children's 15th Anniversary Party yesterday. This is Derek, a Brass Band member outside the home.

M-LISADA was founded by Bosco Segawa in 1996, when as a 12 year old orphan living on the streets of Kampala Bosco started hanging around the studio of German trumpet teacher Christopher Kowlezyk, and pestered him to teach him to play.  You can read about the story here.


After a few months Bosco and his friends formed their own brass band and soon were able to support themselves, rent a room and pay their school fees on income from performances.  They invited other street children to join them and M-LISADA has grown and grown, and now they have a home that accommodates 80 children aged between 7 and 17 and cares for another 70 during the day by providing food and clothing but sadly with insufficient money and space to house them all.  The income from performances also covers school fees for 30 of the children, with education for another 50 plus some university fees also provided through donations.

The children rehearse in the back garden of the home, which has a purpose built stage!  Children's clothing was hanging up to dry on the barbed wire all the way around the compound walls that surround the home.

Inside there are two dormitories crammed full with bunk beds that you can see through the window in the picture below, a kitchen and a shower room.


There are a staggering 300,000 plus street children living in Kampala.  Some are orphans or refugees from the wars in the North a few years ago who have come to Kampala hoping to find the streets paved with gold - not so.  Others have run away from abusive families and some just because they thought it would be 'cool' to live on the street.  These children are very vulnerable - they come to M-LISADA addicted, injured and lost and are at high risk of HIV infection.  M-LISADA provides education about basic hygiene, sex education, drug abuse, disease and HIV prevention, as well as food (1 meal of maize porridge a day plus rice and beans), clothing, shelter and school fees.

This little girl had come in a week ago, two years old and covered with scars where her parents beat her. Most of the children are older - there are only two toddlers currently at the home.  The parents are in jail and one of the American volunteers is working to have her adopted in the US before the parents are released.  The home gave her appetite stimulants to encourage her to eat and she was tucking into a bowl of rice and beans, eating the rice but carefully avoiding the beans!  I had mixed feelings about the plan - I am sure the volunteer meant well but it sounded like the child trafficking that other friends here are working hard to stop.

In addition to the original brass band, M-LISADA has added other performing ensembles - Acrobatics, Cultural Dance, and a Jazz band., and the children also make crafts for sale to raise additional funds.  

The programme for the party included performances by all these ensembles, plus songs by the 'Amazing Girls' Club', a group that focuses on gender issues and empowerment of women, and a fashion show where several girls and one boy minced across the stage in their "creations"!

I chatted with some of the children while we were waiting for the programme to begin.  I had brought some Pfizer pens with me and these proved very popular - I was suddenly surrounded by children like bees around a honeypot.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough for everyone, but the lucky ones all started drawing on their hands!

The children were fascinated by my digital camera and like to pose for pictures, particularly this little girl.

I taught this little boy how to use the camera and he turned out to be quite a good photographer.

This girl and her twin sister both live in the home.  Both she and my photographer friend were intrigued by my muzungu hair and started stroking it and playing with it!

I was encouraged to see that one of my old musician contacts in the UK is among M-LISADA's sponsors through his charity Musequality - David Juritz - who was a regular soloist with the Redhill Sinfonia.  I have included a copy of M-LISADA's brochure below and plan to join the ranks of their supporters.