Harmony of Hope offers cross-cultural education, music workshops, therapy, teacher training, and donates and distributes instruments to support this work.
Education and awareness
Through our music programmes in France and the UK, we foster dialogue, spark interest in Arabic music and culture, and strengthen community ties. We’re developing a curriculum – based on research, fieldwork, and proven methods – to share with UK charities supporting refugees.
Our programmes are delivered through cross-cultural workshops, masterclasses, internationally broadcast concerts, community networks and the sponsorship of a global youth music exchange in partnership with other charities.
Teacher training
Harmony of Hope provides teacher training to confidently deliver music therapy and education, most notably in Jordan.
In partnership with Save the Children, teachers in Amman, Jordan, are trained to lead a choir of around 80 children, aged 6-14. The choir’s aim is to unite local Jordanian children, Iraqi refugees and Syrian refugees living in the poorer suburbs. Here, the children also learn voice and breathing training essential to well-being and development.
Our teacher training has also enabled a weekly music workshop at Nour Al Barakah in Jordan, using specialist equipment to support young adults with disabilities or learning difficulties. The organisation aims to improve skills and well-being through collective activities – and music therapy supplements the work of this wonderful community beautifully.
Music provision
Our music provision includes workshops, therapy sessions, instrumental lessons, and cross-cultural conferences. It began in Erbil, northern Iraq, after the donation of nearly 100 instruments, and has since expanded to Amman, the Zaatari refugee camp, and nearby areas. Time and again, we see music spark joy, evoke memories, foster participation, and build friendships – bringing a deep sense of value and purpose through shared music-making.
Group work can include activities such as:
- using boomwhackers to enable rhythm and harmony, composing raps, rhythms and songs – and bringing back memories of participants’ homeland and home cultures.
- taking turns experimenting on the xylophone whilst singing together.
- passing a cup in time to the music, learning to listen, feel the beat, respond and work together.
- working on basic skills of co-ordination, listening, singing and performing simple action songs in Arabic.
- using newspapers! Enabling children to play something in any place and at any time. With a little bit of imagination, a newspaper can make a very interesting musical instrument.
- group singing at community centres and schools.
- online choral singing, focusing on breathing, phonation and pitch related exercises.
- online lessons and concerts (especially during lockdown).
- group keyboard/ piano classes.
- preparing for a community concert.
- training the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.
Practical provision
Harmony of Hope donates directly to the groups and partners we work with. For example, in collaboration with the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq, we’ve provided sheet music and musical instruments.
Donations of musical instruments are also distributed to schools and groups working with refugee children such as in Marka, Amman.
Making a difference
Meet Abrahim. He is severely disabled and has little use of his arms or legs. Abrahim had never played a musical instrument. We were delighted to see his determination given the chance! Using his wheelchair and toes creatively, we encouraged him to join in the making music with the rest of the class, something he’d never been able to do before.
Meet Layla. She used to sing in her school choir in Aleppo. She also studied French, English and Science and missed the routine and challenge of school life and learning. Now a refugee in Jordan, she has regained some of that structure and connected with her previous life by joining and performing in our youth choir, organised in conjunction with the youth centre she attends. The teenage girls learn breathing exercises and calming techniques, as well as perform songs in Arabic and English. They have even managed some part singing!
Meet Dani, a 15 year-old refugee from Iraq who didn’t go to school. He enrolled with Harmony of Hope in 2016 and began learning to play the piano. Piano gave him purpose and a great sense of community. He spent hours every day practising in order to be a help to others and to achieve in the only way he could at the time. After only 10 lessons, he was confidently able achieve this by accompanying his community choir!
Finally, meet some of pupils of the Hussein School for Disabled Children in Amman, Jordan. Our work has enabled us to provide musical instruments and training for staff and children. Music therapy is not a common concept in the school but it has been received with delight and enthusiasm. The school has welcomed our approach and asked that we never leave!
Harmony of Hope 