LéLé Mam Concert
Kicks Off New Project, “Od Žene Do Žene”
(“From Woman to Woman”) in Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina
The Inner Wheel is the women’s organization affiliated
with Rotary, the international service organization. 2008
marks the 50th anniversary of The Inner Wheel chapter
in Aerdenhout (near Haarlem). Inspired by our work with
children in Srebrenica and with women choirs in the Netherlands,
they have adopted our new project in Srebrenica as the
focus for their fund-raising this year. To kick off their
efforts, they invited LéLé Mam to perform
a concert during their opening celebration.
In addition to their concert artistry, all of the women
of LéLé Mam have experience in singing,
dancing and leading workshops for women in stressed situations,
including in Bosnia. Through Muzicari bez Granica (MwB
BiH), LéLé Mam will work with women choir
directors and singers from Sarajevo and Tuzla, who will
then accompany LéLé Mam to Srebrenica. One
of choir directors, Tijana Vinjevic from Sarajevo, will
recruit and prepare the other singers from BiH. Our colleagues
from the Music Bus, who work in Srebrenica and the surrounding
collective settlements and villages, will support the
project with logistical organization, publicity and invitations
to women to take part. We will spend a week singing with
mothers of Music Bus children and other women and performing
small concerts for the public. We will evaluate the week’s
effort for possible follow-up with a long-term plan in
which Tijana and the BiH singers and choir directors will
play the leading role. We hope to plant a seed that can
be nourished and grown with local talent.
For the first phase of the project we need € 12,000.
The opening concert raised nearly one-third of that amount.
The Bosnian Ambassador, Mr. Fuad Sabeta, was an honorary
guest at the concert. He addressed the audience with the
following speech:
Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends,
I will tell one small story. When I attended a concert
by Musicians without borders for the first time here in
the Netherlands, they were singing in the Bosnian language
and I thought: the ladies are Bosnians, but one of them
is black, but not absolutely-- I was a little bit confused.
We do not have black people in BiH. I thought to myself:
maybe she is a Roma from BiH.
What I want to say is that the performance of MWB
was so excellent, that I believed they were really Bosnians.
It is my pleasure to be here today on behalf of the
embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Kingdom of
the Netherlands, in honor of INNER Wheel’s anniversary.
I read on the WEB site about small beginnings in 1924.
Currently, Inner Wheel has more than 100,000 members in
over 101 countries. Congratulations.
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What especially impressed me
from Inner Wheel’s program issues is Personal Understanding
as the basis for a better future for
all people, although they come from different regions,
cultures and religions.
This event represents an opportunity to remind visitors
to this concert about my country BiH. The country of the
„good Bosnians,“ as our neighbors would call
us, was for hundreds of years mostly a good example of
coexistence. Mutual respect, tolerance for the other and
acceptance of differences, openness and good neighborly
relations were the rule, not the exception.
It was not easy to accomplish all that in this region.
We were destined to live at the meeting point of
different peoples, ideologies, religions, interests and
everything else that is common to all people, but slightly
different between them.
This means that our predecessors invested in coexistence,
that they not only tolerated each other,
but that, under trying times and different regimes, they
found a way to provide themselves with a normal life
to the extent that, as we sometimes say, the circumstances
allowed it. They did not organize
round tables about the expansion of horizons and the
benefits of a pluralistic society. They simply lived
together and mostly attempted to make their lives
easier.
In our times which are times of uniting, exchange,
cooperation, communication, and meetings, this task
appears far easier. One inspiring example
is Musicians without borders.
They gather musicians from all ethnic groups to make
music together.
MwB found partners in local music, peace and
human rights organizations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and worked
together on
many cooperative projects.
MwB participates in the peace and reconciliation process
in such a special way; performing concerts; giving classes;
making music with our local musicians, singing and dancing
with children in schools and
refugee camps . I am sure that
people who did not live through all the tragedy we did
could not
imagine how important this work is for people who were
traumatized during the terrible war. At the end I
would like to express my personal gratitude to
Musicians without borders for their engagement in the
region in this special way and with a special attitude,
but SO helpful
Finally, my wish for all of you is that you will enjoy
the concert of Musicans without borders
Thank you! |
