(ይህንን ፖስት (ልጥፍ) በአማርኛ ማንበብ ትችላላችሁ፡፡)

Kirubel Anteneh, a Self-advocate Leader at FENAID and his mother Brutikan Yesuf both participated in the music training delivered by Music Therapists Emma Britton and Erin Williams-Jones in 2022. As well as a Self-advocate at FENAID, Kirubel is a young and very capable person with learning difficulties and has many interests. Kirubel has been accessing the centre’s services for six to seven years.

I want people to know that I am an intellectually disabled person but I am capable of doing anything; and I want to let people know that intellectual disabled people are capable of doing anything if they are given an opportunity.

Kirubel

As the Self-advocate Leader, Kirubel’s responsibilities include training other individuals who attend the centre about their rights as someone with a disability and how to express themselves to stand up for their rights.  Kirubel also monitors who from his peers are present and absent each day at the centre.  As he has a close relationship with other service users, Kirubel listens and identifies the needs of his peers to inform the centre’s management. Kirubel also promotes FENAID and the rights of people with disabilities through his own TikTok account.

Kirubel’s daily routine at FENAID usually starts off with exercise or playing sports with his peers in the morning and afterwards Kirubel helps with guiding people to their next class. After lunch Kirubel picks an Article from The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) to teach his peers about their rights. Later in the day Kirubel may work on his TikTok videos.

Kirubel has many interests, such as rap music and exercising, so Kirubel enjoys all activities at FENAID, from doing sports to music sessions to representing his male peers in meetings with the centre’s management.  Kirubel’s love for music and using the musical instruments available at FENAID is one of the reasons why he enjoyed the music training delivered in 2022.

The music training helped Kirubel to understand music better by being able to differentiate different types of musical rhythms and Ethiopian musical genres (such as Tezeta, Bati, Ambassel, and Anchihoy) and how to be more selective in music choices beyond music sessions.

The first thing is Kirubel is God’s blessing. I am proud of everything he does at FENAID because he’s an example that people with intellectual disability, as long as they got opportunities or as long as they got training, are capable of doing anything.

Brutikan

Brutikan also enjoyed participating in the music training as she learnt a lot about using music and how music can be beneficial to people with disabilities. She told us it was a great and important opportunity to her as a mother.

Both Kirubel and Brutikan remembered being happy when they saw the very first session led by Erin and Emma, because for Kirubel he really wanted to learn about using music and Brutikan was glad that the music therapists were there to help the service users. During the first music sessions Brutikan and Kirubel led themselves, they remember starting off with making sounds with musical instruments, creating rhythms and learning how to start and stop musical activities. Brutikan felt she could make a meaningful sound during the group sessions, and a key takeaway was such training and musical instruments benefit people with disabilities, helping them become capable of doing anything.

This musical therapy is very important for our children because it motivates them and keeps them alert. They can be very motivated as long as they have this kind of sessions and the instruments.

Brutikan

Kirubel continues to enjoy the music sessions at FENAID as he enjoys the sounds of music. The sessions have helped Kirubel to see other individuals with disabilities express themselves through music and be able to differentiate between rhythms and know more about music in detail. Kirubel was also motivated by the sessions to create his own music. So beyond the music sessions, Kirubel has gone on to enjoy discovering the piano. Brutikan has seen Kirubel’s interest in music and courage to explore instruments grow.

The music sessions have also helped Kirubel to become closer to his friends at FENAID; and as Kirubel finds enjoyment in the music sessions, he would encourage newcomers to participate as he believes there are things they could learn from the sessions and things Kirubel could learn from the newcomer too.

Although Brutikan has not led a session since the training as she does not spend her day at FENAID, both Brutikan and Kirubel have in a way used music together at home. As they both love music, they would sometimes play music and dance together at home.

Yes, the music helped us to get to know each other better. Kirubel teaches me about the different rhythms and so on; he says “Mummy, this is this, this is this.

Brutikan

As a mother, Brutikan is aware how few opportunities there are for parents who have children with disabilities to be supported.  She believes parents should be given the chance to learn more about how to use music in a therapeutic way. Brutikan wants other mothers to know that music is very important for their children’s journey and it helps their children to be motivated.