Healing the children through cool music

By KIUNDU WAWERU

A surprise visit to the Children’s Ward at Kenyatta National hospital by a group of pupils from Nairobi’s St Austin’s Academy recently lit up the facility with renditions of song and dance that proved a good cheer for the sick.

For the performers it was their first time to the hospital and they were touched by the reception.

"It has been a great experience from us," said Raphael Ndung’u, who co-ordinated the event organised by Soundweb Music Studio, a Nairobi-based production facility that’s promoting art therapy in holistic treatment and healing.

The young entertainers not only brought song and dance but also a gift of art material that will keep their less unfortunate counterparts well occupied for days to come.

And as they said, this was their first visit to the hospital but certainly wouldn’t be the last.

For the performers, the experience was important as it made them more aware of life outside their own environment.

It aims to taking arts to inpatients at hospitals around the country and provide recreation to those who need it most.

The young performers at the recent visit were between the ages six and ten, which matched the ages of most children at the wards. "We wanted to have a show for children by children and it went down very well," said John Kariuki of SoundWeb Music studios.

Currently, there is no structured entertainment for the sick, more so in hospitals outside Nairobi. Kariuki says his group intends to provide such recreation that is specific to the categories of the sick as may be relevant to their cultural inclination.

Kariuki said such performances should motivate young artists to pursue the arts and also introduce the same to young audiences as a way of harnessing creativity at the early age.

He said the idea dawned on him during a visit to New York where he visited the offices of Hospital Audiences Incorporated (HAI) that deals specifically with entertainment for inpatients.

Similar events are planned over the next three months and the studio hopes to have a regular calendar of music and other art-related ventures in hospitals throughout the year.

Inevitably Soundweb studios intend to help establish choirs and art classes in the hospitals using volunteer teachers. "There are teachers who have already expressed interest in taking up the role and we are working out the modalities," said Kariuki.

Besides the choirs he hopes to persuade promoters of both domestic and foreign artistes to provide alternative entertainment for inpatients whenever possible.

The events are purely charitable and artists contribute their time and efforts to providing quality and regular entertainment for the sick.

Besides the music, the programme is expected to provide offer social interaction with children from different backgrounds to share their experiences and promote awareness on their plight at different levels.

"It provides a platform for children who would have otherwise never have met, which would in turn play a vital role in promoting awareness across all social spectrum," Kariuki elaborated.

In the course of the show, the young visitors are encouraged to tour the wards and console the sick children. At KNH, in-patient children suffer from a range of conditions from malaria to stomach ailments, diabetes and cancer.

The programme will extend to wards for adults using different singing groups that the patient should relate with.

" We are looking at a peer concept which allows easy interaction between the artists and the their audience’’ said Kariuki.

The music will be tailored to fit the hospital atmosphere, meaning it should be uplifting without being noisy.

Several shows are planned over Christmas but the idea is to provide the art therapy all the year round not only in KNH but at other hospitals countrywide.