Project Georgia
In September 2011 Music Therapists Sarah Whiteside and Alastair Robertson carried out a six-week skill-sharing project at the Public School No 200, Tbilisi. They taught staff how to use music therapeutically so they could find new ways in which to communicate with the children, in turn this gave the staff new insights into the children’s lives, allowing them to express themselves in a safe environment. In total, they trained ten members of staff and ran music sessions with six groups of children (thirty children in total). The staff gradually transitioned from participating to leading the workshops by the end of the third week.
Georgia is a country scarred by conflict and many families have been displaced and live in very basic settlements around Tbilisi and elsewhere, unable to return home. In Tbilisi unemployment is high and poverty, with attendant emotional distress, physical deprivation and mental health problems, is a fact of life for many. Some families struggle to provide the care their children need. This is particularly true where children are disabled or display challenging behaviour as a result of emotional distress, or when the parents themselves have mental health or substance abuse issues.
Alastair returned to Tbilisi in 2012. The purpose of this visit was to see the impact that the initial skill-sharing project in 2011 has had on the staff and children. It also gave Alastair an opportunity to support them with any issues they may have encountered since, as well as to provide feedback and plenty of encouragement. Since then we have been in touch with the head teacher of the school and we received some great feedback:
"It has been six months after Sarah and Alastair’s visit and since that period the children are given musical therapy sessions. Music therapy is a novelty for our school but in spite of that after six months we have already had a result. Musical therapy sessions turned out the best way for engaging children to have motivation, encouragement and inspiration. The parents, teachers and educators mention that these sessions perceptibly assist the children in their mental, emotional and social development. The children became more active, communicable and more open. They are not reserved anymore and they even are the initiators sometimes. Alastair’s second visit to our school has also been very successful and interesting. I want to mention that not only the pupils but also school educators are actively involved in the musical therapy program. Their interest is growing fast. We can say that musical therapy project is one of the most successful in Georgia."
Our Local Partners in Tbilisi have requested some additional training. Sarah is hoping to return to Georgia for a one-week support visit in the spring of this year. Whilst Sarah is there, she also plans to make contact with other people in the Local Network with a view to finding another school or centre that might be interested to receive an introductory skill-sharing project in the future with the help of Music as Therapy International. This would give us a good opportunity to build a local support network for our existing Local Partners.
For more information, you can read the Report for Sponsor's here. If you’d like to support the staff and children at the school, please click here
