When Music Spreads Hope

Image courtesy of rb137.

Finally, some good news to report.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a Kickstarter project to benefit the "girl mothers" of Congo. The project is called Succeeding Together: Uniting Music and Hope. Coordinated by a former student and friend of a friend of mine, it unites Congolese pop stars with one of the most disadvantaged populations in Congo. Together, they're making music: Specifically, they're making a music video with a message of hope, with plans to sending it viral across Congo (and, thereafter, the world).

The video's finished! The image above hows Modestine Etoy, the program coordinator at HOLD-DRC, the nonprofit organization in Congo that is coordinating the project, holding finished copies.

For more about the project, read on. As I said a couple of weeks ago:

My friend is the professor mentioned at the Kickstarter page, and she's the one who turned me onto this. [You can read her posts about it here and here.] One of her former students launched the projects, and is collaborating with musicians in Congo to help what are known there as "girl mothers": very young unwed mothers who have been abandoned by their families and society. These young women have decided that they will not be tossed aside, and instead have banded together to mount a fierce fight for their own futures, the futures of their children, and the futures of all of Congo's other girl mothers and their families.. . . 

This is leadership. Leadership, in fact, at a level that most of us can't even begin to imagine. It's difficult, it's frightening, it's dangerous. All the more so in a place like Congo right now, where bloody internal strife is being leveraged and exploited by outside colonizing forces that want to steal the region's wealth of valuable natural resources. 

Now, this Kickstarter project is trying to help amplify these young women's voices. Two popular Congolese musicians, Innoss'B and Maisha Soul, have committed to working with them to create a powerful music video and help send it viral throughout Congo (and, everyone hopes, the world beyond). It's a message of hope, expressed through the cultural commonality of music. 

It's a message that these young women and their children matter.

I can't show you the video here yet; the team has to travel to Rwanda to tie up some final steps before uploading it to YouTube. But the video itself is in the can.

So for now, I'll leave you with the video I posted earlier, by Innoss'B, one of the Congolese pop stars involved in the project.I'll also leave you with a promise to the post the YouTube video here as soon as it becomes available. And to everyone who helped make this happen, my thanks.






Copyright Ajijaakwe, 2014; all right reserved.