My name is Robert Goux and I am a Drum Circle Facilitator trading under the name of HeartBeat Community.
I hoping to raise £250 to purchase 7 djembes and a range of percussion instruments in Nepal to introduce Drum Circle Music to schools and to the communities in the region.
What is Drum Circle Music?
Drum circle music is one of most accessible forms of music making there is.
Drum circles are a free form activity with no leader leading the group or instructing individuals what to play. A drum circle is an environment and setting where improvised music happens on the spot.
DCM are accessible to all no matter ability, culture, age, gender or any other factor. Not only is it one of the few activities that can be enjoyed and experience by groups of any size.
More importantly It can help create a sense of community and unity through those playing. Through such a simple act of playing music together a real sense of community can emerge.
In Nepal there is very little focus on the arts and its role in education. What I’m hoping is through DCM is to encourage others to explore other creative activities. January 2015 till March 2015 for 2 months when I will be in Kathmandu, Nepal working with the schools and community leaders with WatersFromHeaven, an NGO based in the region.
Why purchase instruments?
The reasons to purchase instruments as a-pose to shipping my own equipment is for the project to become self sustaining.
To have community leaders, musicians and teachers become drum circle facilitators themselves and to bring this great activity to their local community through using the instruments crowd funded by yourselves.
Working with an NGO based in Nepal called WatersFromHeaven together we have made links with local communities, schools and businesses.
The instruments bought will stay in Nepal and through permission from WFH the community will be able to lend the instruments to host monthly drum circles. This will enable the project to have long term and far reaching goals.
About HeartBeat Community and WatersFromHeaven
I started HeartBeat Community approx 2 years ago after realising the great potential that DCM can have too all groups. Since then I have ran drum circles in Liverpool (UK), worked with an NGO based in New Delhi (India) called SWECHHA, collorabated with great artists and performers and this year I began working with WatersFromHeaven.
I met an amazing individual called Belinda Swank who founded WatersFromHeaven and has been working with schools and communities in the region for the past 4 years. The video above is from when we last worked together this year from January 2014 till March 2014. We worked with 6 schools in Letang, Eastern region Nepal. We received no funding from outside sources and from using recycled materials for both the art and the music project we were able to produce great results.
We both have the same aim of wanting to promote creative expression through visual and performance art forms and you can have a massive part in it.
For more information about myself and past work visit the link below for more information.
www.heartbeatcommunity.org/community
Here is a letter from a school we worked with this year in Letang, Morang (Eastern Region Nepal)
Prabhat Namuna Early Childhood Development Centre
'We teachers and children from the Centre are really please to have our friends from Heart Beat Community & WatersFromHeaven who taught us to make educational tools and aids for learning. The quality of education was enhanced with this experience and learning and the children seemed more active and curious. We are really grateful for all that we received and hope for similar experience in learning in future at our school. We wish you all the best'