Get to Know Us… Patience!

We thought this would be a nice way to introduce our Living Music Foundation staff!
If you’re thinking of volunteering with us then Patience might just be your new best friend…

Patience (L) with Jean (R)

Introduce yourself!

I am Nyamwija Patience. I recently graduated with a BA in Education. I have 3 siblings and both parents, who live back in the village. I love to sing and I live with Babrah (another LMF staff member). We cook dinner together every night!

Tell us about your role with the Living Music Foundation and what inspired you to get involved.

I am a Vocalist and Vocal Trainer.
I love singing, and sharing this with other people is an incredible gift. I think it is great to teach what I know to other people so they too can be uplifted through music. Through training music I have also been able to make many new friends. I first got involved with music when I was in school and needed a way to pay school fees, so I used money from band performances!

What is the mission of the Living Music Foundation in your words?

It is here to transform the lives of other people through music and music training. We make music lessons accessible to those who need it, and share positive empowering messages through our song! 

Why do you think people should learn music?

Firstly to gain skills in music, to handle your vocals. I used to think I could sing before Disan trained me and taught me how to really use my voice!

For me, whenever I sing something I love, I have no stress. It brings happiness to my life. When I am singing I am not worrying about anything.

Music is also a way for to gain exposure, where you can create a space to share positive messages with the world.

The sense of belonging to a group, to a community is a huge positive to learning music. The musical community is a powerful one. It has taken care of all of us LMF staff at one point or another. To know other local bands, other kids with guitars or music skills, you know you have a connection, a friendship.

What do you wish people knew about Uganda?

We are so hospitable. We will always give you shelter, something to eat and hang out with you. We love to spend time with new people. 

We have fresh air, and green landscapes, food grows year round and is always healthy! I don’t think people know this.

Who is your hero?

Troy Peden (founder of GoAbroad.com). He supported me through university and changed my life. Troy and Elsa came to meet the band in 2016, and they decided to create the Living Music Foundation on this trip.

The LMF Team with Elsa and Troy of Go Abroad Foundation

What makes you laugh the most?

Watching my friends dancing is when I am always laughing and smiling… We have fun together

What would be your perfect day?

I am a Christian and also love adventure. I would LOVE to wake up in Israel, and explore all the incredible history and the culture. My perfect day would be to spend a day exploring all the holy sites. To see where Jesus was born, all of these sites.

What would be your perfect meal?

I have actually never tasted Pizza! If I could try pizza that would be so great it looks like people enjoy it so much. 

If you could have lunch with ANYONE in the world who would it be?

My mother. She is everything to me. She loves me so much and I couldn’t choose anyone over her. She has worked so hard to keep me and my siblings in school. I will always choose her.

If you were an animal what would you be?

A cow…. They are calm and healthy. They produce good things that sustain life.

Thanks for reading our quick fire interview with Patience!

LEarn more about our volunteer program

meet the rest of our team

Advertisement

The Volunteer Experience in Uganda

Uganda. The Pearl Of Africa. Dangerous. Violent. Barren.

Tell your friends and family that you want to go to Uganda and they will probably have some pretty negative comments to make about how it is not safe….

Uganda is a complex, developing nation. But there is so much more to it than that image of a child with huge sad eyes and a swollen belly.

so, What is it actually like to live and work with the living music foundation?

1: The work

Learning to play guitar with the Living Music Foundation

Visiting communities is a daily part of life with LMF

Volunteering with the Living Music Foundation, your work day revolves around Music and Empowerment.

Volunteers teach music lessons to disadvantaged people and communities. We believe in the power music has to transform lives, having experienced it for ourselves (That’s why we set up the organisation!)

You will travel with us to women’s refuge groups, orphanages, schools, church groups… or any other community that we work with! This is where most of our training takes place.

Sometimes you may stay at the LMF office to undertake 1-1 music lessons.

read more about the importance of music education here

And the next day you may be with us performing at fancy functions!
If there is something Western Uganda enjoys more than eating Matooke, its a good function!

If there is a wedding, a give away or most any function near our town of Mbarara, you can bet we’ll be performing there…

Jean and Patience love to sing!

With the Living Music Foundation, through teaching music lessons volunteers are creating a positive and long lasting impact in our communities- without the damaging voluntourism!
Just musicians sharing music!

HOME life

Some volunteers are actually pretty surprised when they see we have full on houses here!
The most common image of life in Uganda is of hand built huts, like below.

• 

  Hut in North Uganda

• 

  Life in a Ugandan Village

However, Uganda has towns and cities too!

The Living Music Foundation volunteers will stay in a house with a local family from Mbarara.
Volunteers will have their own room, and a super lovely and welcoming family.
Here is one our families!

LMF volunteers live with a lovely local family in Mbarara

Host families will treat you as one of their own children. As a volunteer you will share meals together, enjoy your evenings together and maybe even go for some weekend excursions!

All of our host families are wonderful and loving people- that’s why we chose them! Some of them are teachers or business people, some of them have farms, we even have some reverends! But they are all local people who want to get to know you.

What better way to learn about a people and their culture than by sharing a house with them!

the food

We already wrote a little blog post about Uganda’s favorite food items!

The photo below is an average lunch time meal in Mbarara.

As you may notice, it is all natural (except maybe the chapatti).

Avocados, tomatoes, rice, nuts, beef, matooke (a steamed banana dish), peas…

The West of Uganda (where our program is based) is rich in variety of yummy nutritious foods! Everything grows abundantly here, fruits, veggies, legumes.

Volunteers need not worry about having enough to eat! If anything, you’ll eat too much as everything is so delicious!

Social life

Mbarara is a large enough city that there is always tons going on! From live local bands playing in the evenings to hiking groups!

• 

  Sunrise Hike

• 

  Hiking in Uganda

• 

  Exercise on a hill

A huge group of us get together and hike some of the hills surrounding Mbarara, starting at sunrise! Then we like to do some aerobics at the top of the hill. Much more fun than the gym!

Volunteering with LMF means you’ll always have friends!

Jean and Disan love going for the local bands.
Babrah and Patience always love to go hiking and Innocent is always down to hang out!

The best thing about our group is that we are all young people who like to socialize- who else would start a non profit organisation, travelling everyday to communities to play and teach music!

The Living Music Foundation is full of fun and friendship

So, is life here is different to how you imagined it?

We hope you enjoyed this little taster of our volunteer program!

If you want to learn more, click HERE

Fundraising Ideas For a Volunteer Abroad Program

So you decided to volunteer abroad? Great!

Volunteers often find themselves surprised by the costs of a volunteer program as they generally need to cover the costs of transport, accommodation, food, and contribute towards the administrative costs for the organisation.

This may seem daunting, but don’t worry! This money doesn’t need to come straight from your pocket!

You are about to embark on a life-changing trip, for you and for the communities you want to work with.

There are lots of ways to raise money towards such a mission, leaving you able to enjoy the experience and make a positive difference!

Volunteering abroad can be expensive

How Do I Fundraise To Volunteer Abroad?

Here are our 9 top ideas:

1.Define Your Motivations

The first thing you need to do is define your your reasons for volunteering.
Is it a passionate desire to help those less fortunate? Do you have statistics and facts that explain the issue you are going to be working for.
For example on our program you may explore the school drop out rate in Uganda, or impacts of music on youth development.
Having that passion and defined reasoning will be helpful when asking for donations!

2. FundMyTravel.com

Or any crowdfunding site. Fund My Travel is specifically for travelers looking to fund a trip! It is really simple to set up your campaign page which you can share directly to any online platform.

They also have fun extras such as Donor Rewards. These are promises to people who donate certain amounts. For Example: 10$ – I will send you a postcard, $20 – I will cook you dinner, $25- I will make you a bracelet with your chosen flag. It can be anything!

3. Use your human connections

Fundraising doesn’t need to mean standing in the cold with a bucket for hours.

Chances are, you know some humans in this world.

Your friend who works in a bar could put a fundraising jar there for customers to put their change in, or let you host a pub quiz where the proceeds go towards your trip!

Does your aunt work for a large corporation that would sponsor you? (Great for their social media).
Or maybe someone works in an office where you could hold a lunchtime bakesale!

Sell tea and coffee at your little brothers Saturday football games.

Make a list of all your connections to see how they could help you fundraise towards your goal!

4. Social Media

Simply sharing your story and crowdfunding page link to your social media, family and friends is a very effective way to get donations!

Write about the work you will be doing and why it is important

For example why music is important in the lives of youths!

Use statistics and facts that relate to your volunteer work when posting on social media, and post regularly.

Ask your following to share your posts, so that people who don’t know you personally can donate too!

Share your link in relevant groups; such as a facebook fangroup dedicated to your favourite singer, maybe people will support a fellow Directioner/Beyhiver/Little Monster….

5. Utilise YOur local community

Are you part of a faith group, such as a church or mosque? These are very effective groups to tap into for donations towards your volunteering trip.

Talk to local schools, especially your old school…

You can give a talk in an assembly about your volunteering mission!
Not only would this inspire the younger generation to get into volunteer work, they can fundraise for you.

Suggest a ‘no uniform’ day– where each student donates $1 on that day in exchange to not wear uniform
>>> This could raise a huge amount towards your trip!

Most schools also have monthly or weekly newsletters, you can ask to put your story and a link to your crowdfunding page!

Think about other ways to use the local community, such as any groups you are a part of, local newspapers…

Your local community can help you raise money to volunteer abroad.

6. Do Something Crazy! for money!

You can get really creative here!
Sign up to run a marathon, cycle from Edinburgh to London, complete a thru-hike, do a skydive, shave your head, get a tattoo, complete the 3 peaks challenge…

One idea is to use Facebook live or use Instagram stories and ask for donations in exchange for dares.
For example someone could say I will donate $30 for you to dye your hair green / sing a song / eat a jar of pickles… And then you do it live on camera!
This brings in high volumes of donations!

A sponsored skydive is a great way to raise money

7. No Presents This Year…

If Christmas / your birthday / Eid / Graduation, or any other occasion you may receive gifts is coming up… tell everyone that instead of a gift for yourself, you want donations towards your volunteer trip!

If each family member that would buy you a present instead donated the money to your trip, you can reach that target much more quickly.

People might even be more generous as a result of your selflessness…

You can set up a Birthday Fundraiser on Facebook!

Forgo presents this year to reach your fundraising goals

8. Ebay!

Create some space in your life and reach your fundraising total by selling that stuff you don’t use or wear on Ebay!

Those shoes never fit, that portable DVD player you haven’t used since you downloaded Netflix, a broken laptop someone could use for parts, your ex partners sweater… Sell it.

You can raise some serious cash AND de-clutter your life to make packing for your trip that much easier.

9. Use your skills

What skills do you have that you can use?

Maybe you can make friendship bracelets, hair wraps, take great photos, sing… offer to babysit, be designated driver for the month, write beautiful personalized wedding invitations?
Mow a lawn, offer to fix up a website.

Anything you can do in exchange for money! It’s getting you closer to your target.

People will pay you to clean for them.

---

Now you know how to fundraise, it’s time to apply for our volunteer program!

Click here to apply.

Why Music Students Should Volunteer Abroad

A volunteer program Abroad is essential for musicians!

Party in Canggu, Swim with turtles in the Philippines, Teach guitar in Uganda, roadtrip across Australia… there are many things you can do with your gap year | summer | half term.

Here is why musicians should consider a volunteering trip overseas!

1.Alternative Travel

Forget travelling to hit up tourist hot-spots, party and move on without gaining depth of understanding about a place and its culture or people.

Volunteer programs allow you to travel new places in a very different way!

By volunteering abroad you’ll likely be in places completely off the tourist route.

Such as with us in Western Uganda!

This gives you the opportunity to become completely immersed in authentic local culture, and take part in different experiences to your peers (Uganda isn’t called the pearl of Africa for nothing!)

Staying with a homestay, as with most volunteering programs, means you live their culture and daily life. It is very different than staying in a party hostel in Budapest, here you become  a part of the family!

On a Music Volunteering Program you get to travel while using your passion for music to meet people, change lives and have a once in a lifetime experience.

2.Make a difference While travelling

Tourists are often known for causing trouble in the places they overrun on their gap years, causing degradation and multitude of problems (just look at Boracay…)

But what if you could travel to an amazing destination and enrich lives there instead of damaging them?

Rather than the ‘I don’t know how to build schools but I’m going to go to Africa and build a school’ program model, you’re using a skill you actually possess to enrich peoples lives.
Music!

Not only are you getting to experience a whole new country and culture. To meet wonderful people, enjoy new food, see new landscapes.
But while doing this you can make a real difference!

You can inspire the communities you are placed with, teach them lasting skills with their instruments, help them find their passion.

The staff here at the Living Music Foundation have transformed their lives through dedicating themselves to music, could you help a vulnerable child find their path?

Read about the advantages of learning music here

3. Not harmful ‘Voluntourism’

To add on to the last point….

‘’It is rare in the voluntourism industry to find projects initiated by a community seeking foreign volunteers’’ (Thinking Beyond Borders)

That is us.  We are a small local organisation, who local communities and people approach wanting musical training to improve their lives and enrich their futures.
We want overseas volunteers who can share their musical skills to help us train these communities!

This is not the harmful act of forcing things to happen to a community, such bringing in unskilled volunteers to build a school they did not ask for.

This is musicians sharing skills with one another.

All of the fun, none of the unintended harm

4. A project you’re passionate about

Sure. If you want to volunteer you can do so with any number of organisations and for many different causes.

You’ve dedicated hundreds of hours to your skill in music, whether that’s playing guitar, the xylophone or singing. Why is that?

You probably think other children should have the opportunity to learn  music and the chance to utilize its transformative power.

You probably understand the importance of music, and what skills it can develop, the places it can take you, the joy of playing!

We want musicians to share their musical skills with people that want to learn music

You’ll get to connect with people from a whole new country, lifestyle and culture, but you have one HUGE thing in common – a passion for music!

Here at LMF we have friends all over the world due to a shared passion for our music.

LMF staff practicing with a volunteer

If this hasn’t inspired you to take part in a music centered volunteer program, check out our website and read more about our organisation!

The Importance of Music Education

Why music education needs to be accessible to all

In this blog post, we look at the positive impacts music lessons can have for a person, from positive results in schooling to improving self esteem. Thus, this explains why we are so passionate in our mission to make music education accessible in vulnerable communities.

Like what you read? Check our our volunteer program here!

1. Brain Development

There has been a number of academic studies done, such as this one which prove students who also learn music have higher IQs than those who do not.

As our friends at NAFME found; music students are constantly using memory skills to learn instruments, learn to read music, memorize new songs.
This develops their memory skills far beyond their non musical peers.
Important skills like this serve students throughout their education and beyond!

Developing fine motor skills are a clear benefit of practicing music.
The physical act of playing instruments itself increases hand-eye coordination and dexterity, similar to playing sports.
Furthermore, deciphering a new language in the way of notes, decoding harmonies, rhythm, speed, tone… Tonara describes this as a great workout for your brain in their article!

It is important that music education of high quality is available to as many of them as possible: it must not become the preserve of those children whose families can afford to pay for music tuition. While music touches the lives of all young people, the disadvantaged can benefit most.

UK Government, Department for Education, 2011.

2. School

As we mentioned before children studying music have been found to have higher IQs than those that don’t.

Did you know that music education also complements their subjects?

Firstly it helps kids stay engaged; student musicians are likely to stay in school to achieve in other subjects (NAfME).

Secondly, music education helps with specific subjects!

Let’s take Maths for example;  learning time signatures in music allow teachers to explain the fundamentals of fractions!

What about Reading Comprehension? Lyric analysis and songwriting help students use and understand language on a more nuanced level than their peers, as well as increased emotional development allowing them to understand meanings behind pieces of literature.


These skills are important throughout students academic career, giving them the ability to develop more thoughtful prose, comprehend questions, and understand mathematical concepts.

importance of music in our society here

3. Sense of Pride and Self Esteem

The youths and groups that we work with come from very humble backgrounds. Battered women, young single mothers, orphaned children, families lacking financial security.

See Here

Learning music has benefits for the self esteem of these groups, and all groups in society!
This pushes them to excel in other areas of their lives.

A sense of achievement is fostered when one is learning music; to play a piece of music is challenging and requires commitment, but it is also a very achievable goal.
Reaching goals in their music education will foster self confidence that they can achieve in other areas of life with some commitment!
It shows them they are skilled individuals, capable of achieving many more goals!

4. Discipline

Inspired Classroom look at how music education teaches discipline to students.

To learn an instrument takes time and dedication, to practice for hours, and repeat the same sequences over and over until it is perfected.

Students therefore need to schedule regular practice around their other activities, teaching them to prioritize and time manage.

This creates disciplined individuals who will find it easier to learn new skills in the future, understanding the concepts of time management and prioritizing activities.

5. Social skills

Partaking in music lessons, a local orchestra, or church choir opens up a whole realm of opportunities to meet and work alongside new people.

Teamwork is a fundamental part of being in a band or orchestra; students learn how to work together and communicate effectively.

Partaking in these groups create a social community where you all share one huge thing- playing music! You make friends with whom you can create musical camaraderie (Tonara) whom you can discuss your favorite compositions with, practice with.

For vulnerable communities, this may mean students are socializing in these uplifting circles over less favorable ones where they partake in underage substance abuse (an issue among Ugandan youths) or crime, giving them the chance to break out of such cycles.

learn about my favorite musician in Uganda here

If you liked this feel free to follow our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more of what we get up to!