Music Fund has been active in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2007. It started with a partnership with the National Institute of Arts in Kinshasa (INA), where Music Fund made a large donation of instruments, helped to open a repair shop of instruments and trained not only the first piano tuner of the Congolese capital, but also repairers of guitar and wind instruments. In parallel with the INA, Music Fund initiated a work aimed at an extremely sensitive public, former street children, in collaboration with Espace Masolo.
Masolo Space, located in the municipality of Masina, is a place where former street children can reintegrate socially through an artistic apprenticeship. Music Fund supports the band, the repair shop and trains young wind instrument repairers. In 2018, Music Fund will continue to work with Masolo Space through a donation of instruments and the expansion of training activities to another municipality, Kimbanseke, through initiations of maintenance of instruments given by a repairer of Espace Masolo, who has been trained in Belgium in Music Fund’s workshop in Marche-en-Famenne.
Music Fund also supports a group of drummers composed of former kulunas (street offenders), through, among other things, a drumming program. Since 2017, Music Fund have launched a major project in Bukavu (donation of nearly 200 instruments, first training of guitar repairers and wind instruments), with Ndaro Culture, the only established cultural center of the city, which gives music lessons especially to former child soldiers. To read more about Music Fund’s work in Congo – see the attached presentation.