By Serey Samchet, Carrie Herbert & Euan Gray | Ragamuffin Cambodia Team
I. The Overview of Be-yourself Arts Therapy Project: by Serey Samchet (Be-Yourself Arts Therapist and Project Coordinator)
Be-yourself developed from Ragamuffin’s Arts Therapy Clinic as a Khmer led project in 2013. The aim of this project is to bring healing, nurture, honor, and celebration to the lives of the most vulnerable children and young people in Cambodia. The project is so passionate to offer creative arts therapy as a natural and powerful healing process to individuals and group of young people and adults who are suffered by psychological problems in order to discover their essence of who they are, their connectedness with others, their ability to heal from traumatic experiences and grow, and to lead a good quality of life. Our project strongly believes in the power of arts therapy in enabling people to be themselves, to transform and celebrate their life, other people, and their world.
II. Project’s outcome
Throughout this whole year, the project has worked in collaboration with both international and local partnership NGO’s such as M’Lop Russey, Domnok Tek, Cambodia Acid Survivors Charity, LICHADO, Chab Dia, International Justice of Mission and Citipoint in order to deliver arts therapy, supervision, training, and emergency de-briefing to key staff including: social workers and counselors, community leaders, profound disability children and adolescents, foster families, and other traumatized young orphanages . As the result of these services, there were remarkable positive impacts on people who we have been directly working with as well as people who received the services and support from them in various ways such as self- development, improvement of their personal and professional quality at work and home, improvement of stress management and self-care skill, and gaining knowledge of mental health and other beneficial learning related to their work.
III. Future Plan of the project
Thank you so much for your contributions to supporting this vitally important work in Cambodia.
Songkites 2014 (Euan Gray & Carrie Herbert)
“I really think my music and the music from Songkites can help young people in Cambodia to believe in who they are and believe in themselves”. Kan Pich (Songkites Season 1)
Songkites supports Cambodian songwriters to write, record and release original songs. www.songkites.com.
With a focus on encouraging creativity and originality through authentic expression and inspiration, songwriters participate in a series of workshops to explore and develop their creative process. Throughout the workshops they receive individual coaching from professional songwriters and therapeutic support from professional Arts Therapists. This helps them develop both technical skills and understand and express themselves assertively as they explore life experience in their songwriting.
They then prepare a demo of their original song which is recorded at Songkites Studio. This new song is mixed, mastered and then released internationally.
The experience culminates in a special live performance concert at one of Phnom Penh's best music venues. Each songwriter is then supported to create their own merchandise to accompany and promote their music, given further opportunities to perform and showcase their music and encouraged to be involved with future Songkites programs.
Ultimately, the aim of Songkites is to foster a community of Khmer songwriters who nurture and support each other, and help to promote the emergence of more creative, original, life-affirming music.
Why Songkites?
Cambodia’s most loved traditional kites are called Khleng Ek. Literally meaning 'unique kite', they are celebrated because they produce musical tones as they fly. Traditionally, they are flown to give thanks for bountiful harvests, however the practice was suppressed during the Khmer Rouge period until recently.
Kites are wonderful symbols of freedom and creating original music is about being free; free to be yourself and express yourself authentically through music. Creativity knows no boundaries, yet it too was suppressed in Cambodia's traumatic recent history. Songkites encourages emerging songwriters to take hold of the string, and let their musical kite fly free!
How It Came About
Songkites emerged in the inspiring environment of Ragamuffin Boathouse, an Arts Therapy and Creative Hub in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Ragamuffin Co-Directors Carrie Herbert and Kit Loring, both songwriters, have long professed the important role of music in creative and personal development. On the top floor of the building, songwriter, educator, and Ragamuffin’s therapeutic music facilitator, Euan Gray had been setting up a recording studio called Songkites Studio. With their shared passion for encouraging growth through songwriting, Carrie and Euan created the project with the generous assistance of seed funding from a private donor and match funding from BBC Loy 9.
The Venue
The group workshops, rehearsals and performances take place in an inspiring multi-purpose space called 'The Boat Room'. Looking over the boat room is Songkites Studio, recording studio where the songs are created, recorded and mixed. Get in touch if you want to know about our first Album launch and Songkites Season2.
“Songkites is the place to discover who I am. I knew about music but didn’t know how to make a song from my heart. Jimmy Kiss (Songkites Participant, Season 1)
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