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Healing in Harmony: Music Therapy for Vulnerable Communities
Make Music Matter & Panzi Foundation have scaled their innovative approach to reducing levels of anxiety and PTSD in GBV survivors through its unique approach to music therapy.
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WHAT HUMANITARIAN NEED IS BEING ADDRESSED?
Few efforts have been made to address the problem of how best to assist survivors of sexual violence in their recovery, aid in their reintegration, promote healing in the affected communities, and bring an end to sexual violence. Provision of psycho-social support is often viewed as a separate endeavour from physical healing and from reintegration of survivors and the rebuilding of their lives and futures on more stable ground. Western-style “talk” therapies are insufficient to deal with the trauma of sexual violence, especially where survivors are unintentionally further isolated in a “safehouse” context. A holistic, culturally relevant approach is necessary.
WHAT’S THE INNOVATION?
Integrated into Panzi’s full holistic healing model for survivors of sexualized violence and traumatized populations, our program has demonstrated statistically significant results in reducing levels of anxiety and PTSD through its unique approach to music therapy. Working in tandem with a trained psychologist and music producer, participants heal together by writing, recording, and professionally producing songs about their experiences. Through rigorous documentation of our model, development of operations and training manuals, and the provision of technical support, we will scale our program through an affiliate model that will retain the local control and cultural relevance necessary for success.
After a HIF development and implementation grant to pilot this programme proved successful, continued funding enables the development of this innovation with the aim of scaling up this innovation in the humanitarian sector.
Make Music Matter has partnered with Fox Lake Cree Nation to bring its innovative Healing in Harmony music therapy program to Indigenous communities in Canada.
Franchising their innovation: Healing in Harmony’s Scale Vlog #4
20 Mar 2019
As they enter the final phase of their journey Healing in Harmony look back at how a belief formed 10 years ago – that music heals – has grown into a social franchise that is helping survivors of sexual violence across the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The power of partnerships: Panzi Foundation & Make Music Matter Scale Vlog #3
1 Nov 2018
If new innovations are to truly get to a scale that begins to ensure self-growth, sustainability and therefore viewing its beneficiaries en masse as equals, then the question arises, “Wouldn’t we need to include the private sector as well? Wouldn’t we as a sector eventually exhaust our pool of resources and expertise if we didn’t?”
A blog by Frances Hill, Effective Partnerships Manager, Elrha, and mentor to the Healing in Harmony project through Elrha’s Journey to Scale initiative. Photo Credit: Platon for The People’s Portfolio and Dr. Denis Mukwege
One of the cornerstones of the Healing in Harmony model is the treatment of our beneficiaries as artists. We strongly feel that the role of the artist in society can be a powerful tool in the restoration of an individual’s self-worth and dignity regardless of socio-economic status.
Panzi Foundation & Make Music Matter: Scale Vlog #2
10 May 2018
Since we last caught up with them Panzi Foundation have been focusing on expanding their music therapy programme for gender-based violence (GBV) survivors, Healing in Harmony, building a new music studio and researching the programme’s impact as part of their Journey to Scale.
A report on two major components of this Journey to Scale; the training centre at Maison Dorcas and the on target completion of the first stand alone studio in rural DRC
Panzi Foundation's first vlog on the #JourneytoScale
17 Jul 2017
Panzi Foundation and Make Music Matter aim to scale up their music therapy programme to gender-based violence (GBV) survivors across the Democratic Republic of Congo.
To date, this innovation has been widely successful in providing treatment/rehabilitation to over 1200 survivors of sexual violence and other traumatized, vulnerable communities within the urban setting of Panzi Hospital’s aftercare facility Maison Dorcas in Bukavu.
Wherever there is suffering, there is a need to express oneself and music is one of the few constants in every culture.
In the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), there also persists a culture of stigma, created by the widespread practice of rape.
"Four months after my last visit to our music therapy program, I noticed a distinct change; as our beneficiaries filed into our recording studio, I observed they had all brought notepads with them containing lyrical, melodic and thematic ideas for songs – in the past, beneficiaries would often arrive empty handed, dependent on the guidance and creative prompting of our staff..."
An invaluable responsibility, when working in the international development and human rights sphere, is to ingest overwhelming facts and statistics and transform them into flesh and blood realities. Everyone has a story that deserves to be heard.
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