Maestro turns Egyptian children in need into songbirds
Egypt's Children's Choir helps give orphans and street kids new perspectives on life.
When renowned Egyptian-Lebanese maestro Selim Sahab passes a street child selling tissues or when he visits orphanages in Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt, he reminds himself, “If this boy has an opportunity, he could live a better life than me.” Sahab's experiences on the streets and in children's care homes inspired him to reach out to help some of the young people he saw in his own special way. He continues to do so, offering them a place in Egypt’s Children's Choir, which he established two years ago.
“When I first met these children, they were in desperate states of mind and had no idea how to think of tomorrow,” Sahab told Al-Monitor. “They hated society and the family as a concept.” According to Sahab, these children did not need a psychologist to help them, however.
“They only needed one thing: love,” he said. “When they feel they are loved and taken care of, they change into better humans. Now they love life and learn how to dream about their future.”
Sahab drew inspiration for the choir from Venezuela's El Sistema, the publicly financed music education program founded in 1975 that offers free classical musical education to marginalized children to promote their development and hopefully provide them with better opportunities in life. At the moment, Egypt's Children's Choir consists of 150 youngsters 6-18 years of age. The Ministry of Youth and Sports and Social Solidarity Ministry welcomed the program and as a result decided to fund the choir.
