Background of the Meru Music Project
In 2005 Larry Dittmar, a retired Michigan public school teacher, was invited by local Meru community leaders to build a music program for the Public School students. In a short nine years, the music program has been successful in leading Kenya's music education movement. The program was launched with generous donations from the Michigan music teacher community, who donated instruments, books, stands, etc. Currently there is an active band program at one High School, the Bishop Lawi Imathiu Secondary School (BLISS). This band program has graduated a decade of successful band students, and has three levels of ensembles, with major improvements academically for all enrolled. The first group of students had the opportunity to compete in the Kenya National Musical Festival and was recognized as 2nd best of 14 performing groups, and the only public school in the competition. The school band also presides over public celebrations, graduations, cancer awareness events, and entertains important community visitors. The string project was launched in 2010 with a generous donation of violins from Shar Music, and teacher training over the following few years in Meru by Michigan string educators.
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Public Schools in Meru
Meru, Kenya is a city in the foothills of Mount Kenya, about 5 miles away from the equator and four and a half hours north from Nairobi by car. Meru is filled with children living in abject poverty, many of whom are orphans who live & board at their schools. The public schools in Kenya are just over 10 years-young, and the official school day curriculum does not include any music education. In 2004 a group of people from Ann Arbor, MI, contributed to building a secondary school in Meru, Kenya specifically for the "poorest of the poor" children in that community who would otherwise not be able to attend beyond primary school. The school, BLISS, started with 26 students in one classroom and has grown to 500 students over the past ten years.
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The students in this music program are uniquely passionate about music. As orphans with few material possessions, the gift of music is one they find invaluable. The children of Kenya have a rich and deep cultural heritage which is being lost due to history of oppression, and a current lack of resources. It is very important to the people of Kenya to preserve their traditions. and they have an inherent love and joy for music and dance. Many of the students that have come out of the Meru Music program have started an alumni band program that rehearses three times a week, in which some walk miles to receive this unmatched music education. The progress of the program has even sparked the interest of the Kenyan government, when students from Bishop Lawi Imathu Secondary School began to perform significantly better on the Kenyan National exams after the institution of the music program. The success of this program has sparked the Kenyan government to add music education to all of their schools in the coming years.
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