Kurdishaspect.com - By Sirwan Karim
During the Dutch Music Gala that took place in Amsterdam’s famous theatre ‘Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ’ last week, Dutch celebrities donated an amount of approximately €180.000 for the music projects in the Middle-East, a part of the amount will go to projects in Kurdistan.
Thanks to the famous Kurdish singer Chopy Fatah a Dutch delegation visited Kurdistan in the end of 2006 and decided to place two Kurdish projects for the children of the Kurdish refugees in the cities of Kirkuk and Khanaqin.
The intent is to realize the following projects:
~Assessing the possible damage due to many wars and a period of economic sanctions.
~Development of music education to the refugee-children in the cities of Kirkuk and Khanaqin.
~Preserving traditional musical instruments and documenting and preserving the art of their manufacturing.
~Documenting the history of the great Kurdish urban music traditions.
Chopy
The organizers of the Music Gala believe that music can be used to express both cultural and regional identities. Applied to education it stimulates creativity and self-expression for children and adults. It could potentially be used as a therapeutic tool to relieve stress and boost self-confidence.
Famous Dutch artists, singers and TV reporters attended the Music Gala in Amsterdam. Also politicians participated in the Music Gala, like the Coordinator of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the Netherlands: Mamo Baram, the Palestinian Ambassador in The Hague, the Head of the Middle-East department in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the First secretary of the Iraqi Embassy in the Netherlands.
Furthermore a Dutch cultural delegation will travel in the spring of 2008 to the Kurdish region where they will visit the Kurdish cities of Kirkuk, Khanaqin and Halabja.
Similar projects have been done before by helping the Palestinian refugees living in refugee camps of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
