Since 2008, Palestine Community Music has grown to become a multifaceted program that empowers youth to express themselves and serve their communities.
The project offers uplifting, music-based activities to young people who lack social or cultural opportunities, and reaches thousands of the most marginalized children of the West Bank. Our programs include Music and Nonviolence Leadership training, music workshops for the deaf and children with special needs and the Musical Playground. We also run special projects using rap as a tool for social change as well as offer Music as Therapy
The Musical Playground program maximizes impact with our limited staff, while retaining the rich diversity of activities and target groups. Thousands of school children each year benefit from regular music workshops including dancing, singing, rapping and body percussion, empowering and engaging children, school staff and families in a festive celebration.
We work in close cooperation with Sounds of Palestine, supporting the program with training and musical resources. Sounds of Palestine uses music education as a medium for long term social change, offering regular lessons per week to the many participating children. Hundreds of children from Aida and al-Azzeh refugee camp in the Bethlehem area participate in music appreciation lessons, instrument instruction, folk dancing, choir, music theory lessons and orchestral training.
Musicians without Borders coaches drum groups composed of young Palestinians from refugee camps and villages surrounded by the wall. Samba percussion connects the drummers and the audience with joyful, contagious and empowering rhythms. The samba instruments are used during community events, including nonviolent vigils and percussion workshops for local youth.
Our Palestine Community Music Program Manager on the connection between observation and effective training.
read more ›As we enter the last phase of the Music as Therapy Blended Learning Course, we learn more about how music therapy is being used in Palestine.
read more ›A small piece of the story of Musicians without Borders’ work can be told through numbers; the number of people participating in programs, the number of activities that have taken place, the number of organizations around the world with which we work. Of course, each of these numbers represents a story in itself, of the music made by people in a moment of their lives.
read more ›After eight months of studying tutorials provided by Music as Therapy International and writing assignments, our six Palestinian trainees have started their practical work in three different locations.
read more ›It doesn’t happen every day that the school we work in is exactly located next to the entrance of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So we were happy to arrive too early and walk around the beautiful gardens with a unique irrigation system from the Roman Period.
read more ›Today we gave two more workshops in a different school in Tqu’a, a village east of Bethlehem, Palestine. Enjoy the pictures of the children from the 1st-6th grade of the al-Arsa school. Thank you for your hospitality!
#MusicConnects http://mwb.to/donate
read more ›Can music really make a change? Yes! Read about the powerful workshops led by Halimeh for children with special needs in Palestine.
read more ›We visited the public primary school ‘al-Huriyah’ in Tqu’a village and gave music workshops to 470 boys and girls, age 6-11.
read more ›After eight months of studying tutorials provided by Music as Therapy International and writing assignments, our six Palestinian trainees have started their practical work in three different locations.
read more ›It doesn’t happen every day that the school we work in is exactly located next to the entrance of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So we were happy to arrive too early and walk around the beautiful gardens with a unique irrigation system from the Roman Period.
read more ›Today we gave two more workshops in a different school in Tqu’a, a village east of Bethlehem, Palestine. Enjoy the pictures of the children from the 1st-6th grade of the al-Arsa school. Thank you for your hospitality!
#MusicConnects http://mwb.to/donate
read more ›We visited the public primary school ‘al-Huriyah’ in Tqu’a village and gave music workshops to 470 boys and girls, age 6-11.
read more ›Today we gave music workshops to 518 children in the ‘Haifa public mixed school’ in the village Beit Fajjar, Palestine.
read more ›Our brilliant workshop leader Halimeh Sarabtah Deaf gave another series of music workshops in January to children and teenagers with special needs in the Ramallah district, Palestine. Using paper sheets and sticks, Halimeh creates a special music environment that can be enjoyed by both hearing and deaf people. Thank you Halimeh for your beautiful work!
read more ›After our Musical Playground in the Girls School of Beit Fajjar, another school in the same village heard about the program and invited us.
read more ›October and November have been two exciting months for our special music program in Palestine: Halimeh Sarabtah Deaf, our deaf music workshop leader, participated in the Training of Trainers in The Netherlands, started working in three new centers, and gave 81 music workshops to deaf children and children with special needs.
read more ›Our partners Sounds of Palestine participated in Palestine Philharmonie’s 2nd Winter Music Academy.
read more ›Our deaf music workshop Halimeh traveled to The Netherlands to participate in Musicians without Borders’ Training of Trainers.
read more ›In April and May our local team of Palestinian musicians worked together with Dutch musicians to perform ‘Fe Beit Fe Holanda’ (In Holland is a House) for 1340 children in Palestine.
read more ›In November 2015, Musicians without Borders organized a rap workshop leader training for Palestinian rappers. After an incredible training week with Dutch rappers and spoken word artists Manu and Guus (Kern Koppen), the five Palestinian rappers Abed, Mohammad A., Nadim, Mohammad G. and Ahmad organized several series of rap workshops for children in their communities.
read more ›Watch the video clip Soud Homaidi made of the song written by blind children from al-Shurouq School. The song is recorded in our music studio in Dheisheh refugee camp and is the result of a series of ten rap workshops given by Musicians without Borders’ rap workshop leaders.
read more ›In November and December, four grades from the Ephpheta Paul VI Institute received a series of ten rap music workshops from Musicians without Borders rap workshop leaders Mohammad, Soud and Hisham. The kids are deaf, but that didn’t keep them from making music, rapping and writing words for their own songs!
read more ›Halimeh Sarabtah is deaf, but that didn’t stop her from realizing her dream and study special education, so she can help children with special needs, blind and deaf. And now, also with music. Halimeh followed the Music Workshop Leadership training of Musicians without Borders and Holy Land Trust in Palestine which allowed her to incorporate music into her work.
read more ›Halimeh is one of the 90 young people trained by Musicians without Borders as community music workshop leader in Palestine, where we now bring music to more than 5000 marginalized children. She is especially gifted in working with children with special needs. Since Halimeh finished our training, she has been working daily with children and adults with special needs, giving workshops in art and music. Halimeh is deaf. By joining Musicians without Borders, she has not only enriched our work with ‘special children’; she has also opened the door to other hearing-impaired Palestinian youth to use music to break out of isolation and raise their voices for human rights.
read more ›
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