The Music Man Project Philippines

08/06/2022

Hi friends, things are finally moving.

I visited Estancia last week to begin scouting venues and dates for our new Health and Wellness programs. These programs will be run in community housing projects where people were relocated after typhoons and other natural disasters. There are around 2,500 people living in each project and they very isolated and have limited access to social wellness programs.

Each program will include a number of sessions including: Music is Magic (for kids), Hip Hop Dancing (for teens), Tai Chi for Health (for seniors), and Zumba (for everyone). I am also gathering data on the people with disabilities who live in the projects. If possible I am hoping to run an additional MMP session for special needs.

You can see from this short piece of footage we have some work to do on the public gym to get it cleaned up and usable. It's a long term project that's going to be wonderful.

Very kind regards from the Philippines.

Mel xx

PS: it doesn't look like much now but won't it be amazing to hear the kids singing 'Music is Magic' in this space before the end of the year?

Last Friday we visited the Pabahay ni Tacbuyan to begin planning our upcoming Health and Wellness programs. There is a lot of work to do before we can start ...

09/02/2022

Hi friends, supporters, followers and music lovers everywhere. Thanks for keeping us in your hearts during this extremely long pandemic.

It's now been 2 years since program founder David Stanley and a team of volunteers visited us here in the Philippines and sadly we are still unable to operate due to health restrictions.

There is light though.

Next week the Philippines will open to foreign tourists for the first time in 2 years and it's likely that the province of Iloilo will have some of the very strict mandates lifted in the coming weeks.

You may not be aware that children and disabled persons are not yet permitted to attend face-to-face to classes or events. It's been this way since 17 March 2020.

If you have some prayers, do ask that things will open up here very soon and we can bring music and fun to children of Estancia once more. Maybe even take the program to the kids of Guimaras Island who suffered significant damage and trauma during Typhoon Odette which occurred a few weeks before Christmas.

All our love.

Melxx
Music Man Project Director Philippines

09/06/2021

Hi MMP friends (David Stanley Paul Cudby and others) from across the world. Just a quick update from here in the Philippines. Sadly we are still in lockdown, with schools and educational/public gatherings banned since last year (March 17 2020). This has made MMP activities impossible.

Things were starting to ease over the past few months and we were hopeful that the kids might get to have face-to-face graduations this year, (and even a song from the MMP repertoire). But a second wave of transmission -- with hundreds of new cases every day here in Iloilo province — have shut everything down again.

Last year’s gifts of electronic keyboard, percussion instruments, and music books remain safe in Iloilo City and we remain hopeful that things will open up again. We just don’t know when.

Please keep the kids of Estancia and Iloilo province in your hearts and prayers, hospitals and quarantine centres in the region are full and more and more new cases are being recorded every day.

Yours in music and love.

Mel xx

PS: that’s Jerry in the pic, he (like millions of Filipino kids) hasn't been to school since March 17th 2020 and by law isn't allowed to leave the apartment. He adores the demo function on the keyboard.

16/12/2020

A fantastic video journey of Music and Medicine in the Philippines, February 2020. Huge thanks to Daunton Todd for capturing these moments and producing this 3-hour film!

A video journey through The Music & Medicine Project in Estancia on the Island of Panay in February 2020.

15/04/2020

♥️♥️

Episode 4 of The Music Man Project Podcast, presented by founder and CEO of The Music Man Project charity, David Stanley. This episode reunites the main protagonists who helped establish The Music Man Project Philippines in February 2020: David St...