Medellin gave 410 musical instruments to the city music schools Friday as part of a cultural and social development project.
The instruments were handed over by Secretary of Culture Luis Miguel Usuga Samudio in the Moravia Center for Cultural Development.
The government-funded project, which has been running for three years, provides musical instruments to under-resourced schools that form part of the city’s Network of Music Schools (Red de Escuelas de Musica), and is part of the large-scale project “Medellin: Obra con Amor.”
Thus far, the government has invested 1,122 musical instruments and over $400,000 (COP 778 million) into the project, with the goal of increasing opportunities for vulnerable populations in the city.
Project Coordinator Alejandro Ortiz told Colombia Reports that the purpose of the project is to “strengthen the development of these communities by providing them with resources,” so that “whichever person in whichever social strata” can have the opportunity to participate equally in society.
Ortiz said that certain upscale neighborhoods like El Poblado and Laureles have a great deal more resources at their disposal than areas such as Comuna Uno. The project aims to change that fact by “directing more resources toward the youth of these communities,” which, in the larger scheme, will “impact political development” and ultimately “strengthen the exercise of participative democracy” in Medellin.
According to the city’s Culture department, the project aims to “foster a non-violent attitude in youth who are in a situation of social vulnerability and to contribute to their inclusion and social integration in the city of Medellin.”
The instruments that were handed out benefit 20 schools and 4,000 youth in under-resourced communities, said Ortiz.
