​1. How did you first hear about the Desert Voicebox education program in the Saharawi refugee camps and what made you want to volunteer your time and skills?

"I already knew about Sandblast’s work setting up the school, Desert Voicebox, after travelling to the camps twice before in 2015 and 2016. I initially visited the camps on a delegation trip from the UK with youth organisation The Woodcraft Folk, to learn about the geo-political history of Western Sahara. I later returned to the camps to research Saharawi arts for my undergraduate dissertation, I believe it was after this trip I first heard about the Stave House in the Sahara programme that was being piloted in Boujdor at the time. I thought it was a fantastic idea, after seeing the harsh conditions Saharawis’ face living in the camp, with most of life being about survival, spaces for children to engage in art and gain creative skills were and are hard to come by. Children being born and brought up in the camps are critically in need of opportunities to escape the on-going plight of their society: a place to have fun and enjoy themselves. That’s why this Music and English programme is especially important to the children. Volunteering my time at Desert Voicebox as a singing facilitator was one way I could offer support to the Saharawi cause."

2. What activity did you run in the camps for Desert Voicebox?  

"I stayed in the camps for a month and ran singing and music sessions for the children. These sessions were to supplement the music theory and instrumental learning parts of the curriculum. In the month project we focused on developing pitch, harmony, group singing and performance skills. We did this through various vocal exercises, music games and learning songs together, all with the aim to help the students really embody the music: develop senses of melody and rhythm within their bodies and vocalise it. Another aspect of the work was to embed English learning into the music material, improving reading, vocabulary and pronunciation skills by learning songs in English. Even further from this, I encouraged the students to try writing their own lyrics to a song in English, Spanish and Hassaniya. This was a really amazing creative challenge for them, they responded with so much enthusiasm and engaged with the themes of the song with personal insight and poetic expression. All of the time they were gaining confidence and team-working skills which will help them in other aspects of their lives."

3. Had you previously taught students in similar circumstances?   

"Never. I had only ever delivered workshops to children and young people in the UK, who lived under very different circumstances and vastly different cultural contexts. There were many challenges when working with the children that I had never faced before, which made it all the more of a meaningful learning experience!"
 
 4. What was your initial impression of the Desert Voicebox program?   

"My first impression was that the teachers are incredibly passionate and committed to the school. They care deeply about the children and their progress. The students adore the classes. The fact they choose to go in for more learning after a day of school says a lot. Its obvious the teachers have put in a lot of time creating consistency in the classes from week to week – the students know the expectations of them and they engaged politely and enthusiastically with the classes. When I arrived the class were absolutely brimming with excitement, which made me so pleased I was able to give them an exciting, new, fun experience. They obviously love interacting with visiting teachers, proving that overseas volunteering at the school is something that benefits them greatly. My other first impression was being incredibly impressed by the resourcefulness needed to set up and run the school on low budgets and difficulties transporting materials and technology."

5. How did your role evolve over the course of your time in the refugee camps at Desert Voicebox?   

"I knew that my expectations were going to change as I got to know the kids I was teaching. I definitely saw the need for me to use my time to not only teach singing, but offer lots of other fun activities, to give the children an enjoyable experience while I was there and not just have lessons like any other day! I also started to work with the teachers a little more to encourage them to sing, helping build their confidence in singing and show them they can use group singing more in their teaching."

6. Did you see a clear improvement in the student’s learning abilities over the course of your time in the camps at Desert Voicebox?   

"Helping children to develop a sense of pitch is a difficult thing to teach, because there is such a variation in natural ability across cohorts, meaning some children needed a long time to develop good vocal pitching, and others needed very little time. I saw an incredible improvement for those who struggled vocalising notes/melodies at the beginning of the month, but I didn’t see these changes happen until the very last week. I remember being so impressed with these students in the final days of my trip, seeing them be able to start to ‘click’ with singing was immensely rewarding. The other big improvements I saw was in all the students’ sense of confidence, presentation and performance skills. Many of them became comfortable singing on their own in front of the rest of the class, something that had been a struggle at the start. I think that really came from working on creating a space free from judgement of one another, I saw students supporting one anther more and more and the sense of team spirit really grew. That’s the result of group singing."

​I have loved all the volunteers who have contributed to  our knowledge. I also thank the teachers who have participated in our distance education in the past months. It was a great opportunity to learn for me. I thank everyone who supports this project for letting it progress. I hope the project arrives to all the Sahrawi children in the refugee camps.

​Distance learning has been a really beneficial experience so far, and I hope that the summer training rounds for the teachers will increase. Finally, I would like to extend my special thanks to those who stayed up and helped from near or far to complete this project and bring smiles to the faces of innocent children.

“¡Hola!” – a Sahrawi kid said to me – bouncing off the sandy gravel having just performed a quite spectacular bicycle kick with a football.
 
My plane had landed on an August night in Tindouf a couple of days before. I was picked up from the airport by a musician called Mahfoud, who drove me through the dark desert to Boujdour, a nearby Sahrawi refugee camp. Once there, I joined my host family, Tekwen, and her two wonderful children, Seku and Zahara.
 
As a volunteer with Sandblast, I was there to help the Stave House Project prepare for the new school year, and prepare a new blue building in the grounds of the Lal Andala primary school, complete with blackboards, green carpet, and air-conditioning, so that the English language and music programme could be taught to the children.
 
The Sahrawis use song and story-telling to hand down their traditions, and Sandblast know how to run English language and music programmes that can make an intelligent and meaningful impact. As a man of many languages and one, I always found language learning both difficult and enthralling, and so it was something special to see just how enthusiastic Sahrawi children are to not only learn outside their native language of Hassaniya, but beyond their second language of Spanish too.
 
Aside from pushing forwards the construction of the school building, I worked with four fantastic teachers: the scholarly Neneha, the hilarious Nicole, the doubly hilarious Fatimatu, and the caring Tekwen. We spent hours in a library that had old books glued to the ceiling and the walls, and worked together on teamwork strategies, teaching methodologies, and our daily English language lessons. The four of them were united not only in their love for teaching, but also in their drive to improve themselves as teachers and leaders in their community.
 
It was challenging; it should be expected of the Sahara desert during the summer. The midday sun was so oppressive I that soon realised that naps were an essential means of escaping the heat. Tekwen would sleep too, as would Zahara, who, when completely covered in a thin blanket, looked like a kayak – with her mummified globe head the bow, and her veiled vertical feet the stern.
 
In other ways, the time I spent in the camps with my Sahrawi host family was the least difficult thing I have ever done. After traipsing to the mosque for prayer, Zahara might return to play with her yogurt pots, and Seku might come back to hunt for a khanfsa’, a giant and helpless type of beetle that would scuttle away from us like crazy.
 
In the mornings, I got my running shoes and went running over the Sahara’s distended dunes.
 
During the afternoon, I chased the children, barefoot over the far too hot for me sand.
 
At night, I slept under the stars with Tweken and Seku and Zahara.
 
This repeated throughout September, and I am forever grateful to Sandblast for that.

A brief intro by Danielle Smith, Sandblast founder

Last year, Andrada and Florin, two people who have become like family to me, took a huge leap of faith and volunteered their time to go to the Sahara to run a music workshop, for the Saharawi refugee children, in our Desert Voicebox project. It was an experience of firsts for them. It was the first time they set afoot the African continent, it was the first time they travelled to a desert region and it was definitely the first time they ever tried camel meat. I am truly happy I was able to share this journey with them and the many enjoyable moments we had living together in tent, for ten days, in the middle of the desert. 

The music workshop was also a first for our project. Its resounding success proved to be a turning point, highlighting how these kinds of encounters enrich and expand the horizons of everyone involved. During their time there, Andrada and Florin taught the children a Romanian folk song, which they loved and, in turn, the children taught them the beautiful Saharawi song 'Asahara ma tinbaa' (The Sahara is not for same). Once again, music revealed its power to cross all frontiers and showed us the road to building bridges of enduring friendship and respect.

Below is Andrada's account of her experience, in her own words. Please read and enjoy and view the slideshow of their time in the camps.

My name is Andrada Maria Pascu and I am a Romanian piano and singing tutor, based in London for 11 years. I have been working with all levels, teaching from total beginners to University students. 

In February 2019, my husband and  I were invited by Sandblast to join forces and run a -7 day workshop in the Saharawi refugee camps, based in Algeria. We are both musicians and run AB Music Academy, in London, which we founded in 2012. Considering this invitation both a challenge and an adventure, we rapidly agreed, not knowing that it would be an experience that would have a life impact on us.

Arriving in the Saharawi camp of Boujdour, near Tindouf, we met the wonderful family, which would host us for the entire period of our stay. The lessons we learnt from them were that we can share from the smallest part and  there is no me, or you, there is just us. The unbelievable sense of community was shocking, in the beginning, as we never thought something like that would exist: It didn't take us a long time to feel we were part of it and we that we could build something together. 

Despite having worked with pupils from all kinds of backgrounds, teaching the children from the camps was a lesson for us as well. Usually, their timetable included 45 minutes of music 3 times per week, but because we were staying only 7 days, their lessons were arranged to run as an intensive music course of 2hrs every day. When asked if they would like to do an extra day on their day off, they all jumped and shouted yes. Considering that we are talking about children from 9-11,  an age where they easily get bored and want to go out to play, these children didn’t even like to have their well deserved 5 minutes break.

We couldn’t help making a comparison with the Western society, where it is so hard to keep the students  engaged and entertained and where parents often consider a 1h lesson  too long for them. The children from the camps worked hard, like little sponges, and absorbed all the information, even though it was delivered in the foreign language and not in Hassaniya, their spoken Arabic. 

In those 7 days, we taught music using the Stave House method, which we were introduced to and trained in before going to Africa. It is very enjoyable and easy to deliver no matter what the language and the skill level and it gives music teachers the opportunity to develop their creativity and imagination. Our mission was to consolidate Level 2 Stave House and to do activities with the children  to ensure they grasped how to put into practice what they were learning theoretically.   

It was heartbreaking to see these children with lots of aspirations and dreams and realising that after they finish school, most of them would have no future. This is why we decided to continue helping and supporting  in whatever way we can with our knowledge, and by spreading the word about their existence and their situation. 

Our trip to Sahara made us appreciate more what we have: our families, our freedom, and every little small detail which we take for granted - like water- which for us has no value, but they appreciate each drop. 

Starting from then, we have been trying to be more responsible with what surrounds us, with our planet and our lives and do not let small details pass us by. We are happy and grateful to have had the chance to learn this lesson and to be able to bring joy and happiness to the children through what we know best: music!

Update from Stave House in the Sahara!

For the last two weeks in October, one of our partner organisations, Olive Branch Arts, are in the Camps to run their new photography and music training programme ‘Sand and Vision’. They are working in Smara and aim to build the storytelling and creative composition skills of young participants so they can tell their stories in new ways. You can find out more information about their work here. One of their team, Matt King Smith, is a musician and he is gathering the sounds, music and voices of Saharawis of all ages and musical abilities to create some tracks documenting the team's time in the Camps. We are lucky to have Matt working with both our Stave House in the Sahara groups on two different days of workshops. ​