Thaindian News

Mexico City, July 11 (IANS/EFE) Music and dance lessons have kept dozens of children and young people from taking drugs and dropping out of school in areas of Mexico City that have high rates of violence.

The Orchestra Youths programme that taught guitar, jarana and flamenco dance in the last three years has saved more than 200 people from using and selling drugs, joining street gangs and suffering domestic violence, project director Juan Carlos Calzada said.

The programme was launched in 2008 in a bid to give teenagers and children in down-and-out neighbourhoods the chance to help repair the tattered social fabric, he said.

Currently more than 80 youths attend workshops at least three times a week in parks in the Mexican capital.

Among the more noteworthy cases are eight youths who returned to high school after dropping out and four who overcame drug addiction.

The project director spoke of Ivan, a teenager who has been with the programme for three years. Before learning music, he spent his time on video games and parties where everyone drank alcohol.

“Music has helped him beat those problems. The programme has taught him values like work, perseverance and responsibility,” Calzada said.

The Orchestra Youths programme now has a trust fund of $10,300 a year awarded by the Mexico City government, which has made it possible to buy musical instruments and set up a workshop for making stringed instruments.

The workshop turns out instruments like harps, guitars and the jarana, a local Mexican stringed instrument.

Kids also learn popular dances of Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, and some dream of one day joining the project’s team of teachers.

“Some day I want to be a teacher and help other young people and teach them things to keep them away from drugs and violence,” said 12-year-old Victor Flores.

–IANS/EFE
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