Student to fill void of war with music (From Penarth Times)

Student to fill void of war with music

A STUDENT from Dinas Powys will travel to Croatia this summer to use music as a therapy for children traumatised by war.

Sarah Teagle, a former St Cyres Comprehensive School pupil now studying music at Edinburgh University, will travel with 20 fellow student volunteers to the region of Istria.

There they will organise a summer camp for children affected by war from Mostar, in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Sarah said: "After the horrific sounds of killing and shelling, comes the deafening silence of trauma.

"Music may in some way fill that void left by war."

The youngsters attend the Centre for Children with Special Needs in Mostar.

They are the most needy among a population identified by UNICEF as the most traumatised by war in the whole of the former Yugoslavia.

Sarah added: "Although the war officially ended 10 years ago, its after-effects remain profound among those, now in their early teens, who were directly brutalised or orphaned, and among younger children who suffer the secondary effects of dysfunction among parents and carers.

"There are also children with special needs who have simply found conflict and post-conflict conditions even more difficult to deal with."

The camp lasts ten days and the children have a programme of activities based around daily creative workshops where they script and compose an opera or musical which is performed at the end of the camp.

The project is supervised by experienced therapists, community workers and professional artists, and is both educational and therapeutic in nature.