Using music to transform the lives of children and adolescents at risk in Ecuador

(Quito, March 2012). � As part of its Social Action ffor Music, CAF - Latin American development bank - and the Youth Symphony Orchestra Foundation of Ecuador (FOSJE) held an orchestral and instrumental training workshop in Quito for over 250 boys, girls and teenagers, with the cooperation of four Venezuelan teachers of violin, cello, horn and bassoon, coordinated by maestro Patrick Aizaga, president of FOSJE.

Krützfeldt Hermann, CAF director representative in Ecuador, said "we are committed to reducing poverty and inequality in the region. In this respect, the program reinforces and implements an integrated development agenda by building socio-productive capacity and preserving and promoting culture as a vehicle for social inclusion."

Since its inception in 2000 PASM has become one of the flagship programs in the field of social inclusion of children and youth at risk, following the successful model of the Venezuelan System of Youth and Children Orchestras led by Maestro José Antonio Abreu.

The program is based on travelling training workshops, an innovative approach in which highly experienced Venezuelan teachers give classes on instrumental and choral techniques to children and young people in the beneficiary countries. The young musicians are given the opportunity to develop their intellectual, physical and spiritual capacities through choral and orchestral practice, in addition to fostering values ​​of respect, work and solidarity which contribute to social integration and bringing peoples together.

Along with the workshops, CAF and FOSJE signed a strategic partnership which will expand the scope of activities in Ecuador, and increase the number of participants in the program.

The Social Action for Music Program in Latin America has trained 47,000 vulnerable children and young people, and graduated 606 teachers who are multiplying the model in their communities, as well as giving 162 instrumental, choral and lutherie workshops. The beneficiary countries of the Social Action for Music Program are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.