I am raising money to support a music teacher for the students at Hope & Bright Future School in the Soweto slum of Nairobi, Kenya. Help them know the joy and hope that comes from being able to make music! Join me today!
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Hello Donor Friends!
Although our campaign to raise funds for our Nairobi music teacher is complete, I want you to know that the program is still running strong and students are back in school for Term and are taking lessons!
The political situation in Nairobi has been quite tumultuous due to overturned presidential elections. This is impacting every aspect of society, especially in the slums. The economy has been quite unstable. But because of your donation, children still have an exciting reason to come to school -- to learn to play music!
Thank you so much for helping to make this year of music possible for our students. Peter, the music teacher, is also very grateful for your support! His longterm goal is to start an actual music school where children from the region can come and learn. What a great idea! I hope we can continue to support the children!
Thank you for your generosity and for making a difference!
Randi Levy
In May 2016 the students at the Roberto Clemente Middle School Rock Band department held a benefit concert called, Rock The World, in which with a partnership with The Chuck Levin Foundation, they raised over $7,000. The money went to buy musical instruments to start a music program at The Hope & Bright Future School in the Soweto slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
In February 2017 the instruments finally (and safely) arrived, along with a generous donation of seven desktop computers. The children were so excited! A dream had come true!
Now they need guidance and instruction to help them take the instruments and learn to make music! You can make that possible by donating to pay a music teacher salary.
I am making a personal two-year commitment to Peter Mungati, who grew up in poverty in Nairobi and has made a way out for himself by becoming a professional musician (bio to follow). Now Peter wants to give back to help other children in need find a way out--like he did, through the gift of music!
Peter will visit the school three times a week to give lessons to the students (they have already started!). He will work one-on-one and in groups with the children as they develop their skills and passion for music. School Teachers will work hand in hand with Peter in the process above and beyond their regular duties. The instruments are securely kept offsite and Peter and the school Headmistress Mary Wafula will work together to see that the children get the best possible experience.
These are children living in extreme poverty. They don't even have clean water to drink (that's our next project). But they have music!. They have instruments. And with our help, their dream can become a reality.
Please give generously! Thank you!
Randi
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Hello Donor Friends!
Although our campaign to raise funds for our Nairobi music teacher is complete, I want you to know that the program is still running strong and students are back in school for Term and are taking lessons!
The political situation in Nairobi has been quite tumultuous due to overturned presidential elections. This is impacting every aspect of society, especially in the slums. The economy has been quite unstable. But because of your donation, children still have an exciting reason to come to school -- to learn to play music!
Thank you so much for helping to make this year of music possible for our students. Peter, the music teacher, is also very grateful for your support! His longterm goal is to start an actual music school where children from the region can come and learn. What a great idea! I hope we can continue to support the children!
Thank you for your generosity and for making a difference!
Randi Levy
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Hello Donors Friends!
Last week we held our 2nd annual Rock The World benefit concert. This year we expanded to include a science STEAM Fest with projects all around the idea of raising awareness for clean water in Africa. We raised $7,000 to help build a new new clean water well for the community in the Soweto slum of Nairobi.
At our concert we were privileged to show a video of Peter Munguti and the children of Hope & Bright Future school performing a rooftop concert! It is incredible and inspiring! I am sending you a link to show how wonderfully your investment is paying off!
Additionally, Mary Wafula who runs Hope & Bright Future school has told me how much the music program has lifted the children' spirits. Music has truly helped them to feel upbeat that there are people outside the slum who care about them. Thank you for playing in part in making that happen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky8xtwigV_M (you may have to cut/paste this into your browser, but it is worth it!)
Thank you!
mzz.levy
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May 16, 2017: The children at Hope & Bright Future School held a ROOFTOP CONCERT today at their school! How awesome!! Thank you for bringing this to life!
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Hi Friends,
Thank you to the FORTY families who helped support my music teacher fundraiser! I am so happy to share in this journey with you!
The fundraising campaign is officially OVER--yet the money you donated will continue to impact lives for years to come! I am so excited to have Peter Munguti working with our students in Nairobi! He is a gifted, kind man, who is extremely dedicated to these children, and visits them five days a week for music lessons!
Your gift is an investment into the future of students that would not have this opportunity without your help. I will continue to send updates as they come, so that we can continue on this journey together! (I'm all about journeys, if you haven't noticed...and I'm very passionate about this one!).
On Thursday, May 25 the Clemente Music Rocks rock band students will have the privilege of getting to "perform" with the Hope children in a combined music piece -- if you are free that evening for our ROCK THE WORLD 2 concert, I would love to see you! We will be focusing our hearts and our wallets on raising money to bring clean water to the Soweto slum through a partnership with the Levin Foundation and WaterMission.
Thank you again for helping us to ROCK THE WORLD!! Your donation IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!
THANK YOU!!
Randi/Mzz.Levy
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Thanks to everyone who donated to our music teacher fund for the students of Hope & Bright Future school! This campaign ends on my birthday and I would love nothing better for you to join me in celebrating and supporting the children of Soweto, Nairobi. They are so beautiful, and every act of kindness and generosity makes a HUGE difference!
Please consider giving today. Children from other regions are beginning to attend the school in order to play the musical instruments. We are making a difference!
Thank you!
mzz.levy
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Dear Friends,
Thank you again to all of my partners in helping bring music lessons to the children in the Soweto slum of Nairobi. I am very pleased that our music teacher, Peter Munguti, is able to work with the children regularly!
Peter comes well-recommended and seems to be a good man. I have had several conversations on Skype with Peter, and I find him to be very caring and humble with a real sense of compassion and love for the children. I am very glad our paths have crossed. Thank you for allowing our musical friendship to continue!
I am also happy to announce that we have agreed to a good wage for Peter and I was able to wire a first payment to him today through the Equity Bank of Kenya, working with a local NGO. Special Thanks to my step-father Rick Crane for working with the Kenyan Embassy to research an honorable and fair wage for Peter.
My school is putting on another benefit concert and science expo called "Rock The World" on May 25 to bring clean water to the children at Hope & Bright Future School! We are partnering with The Levin Foundation and WaterMission and will hopefully complete the digging of a clean water well in the next 4-6 months! What a huge life-saving endeavor that will positively impact a community for generations to come!
As a wonderful bonus the Clemente Rock Band students will have the privilege of performing a song with the Hope & Bright Future school students on their instruments. I hope you can make it to the event, as it will be a special night.
Thank you again for your support! I hope you will consider partnering again so that we can continue bringing hope to the children of Hope & Bright Future School in Soweto!
Thank you so much.
Randi
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I am a little over halfway through my fundraising campaign for our music teacher for Hope & Bright Future school students in Nairobi, Kenya! I have met my goal but continue to ask for your support to make a sustainable commitment. If you could share on your social media I would be grateful! Giving is not tax-deductible but every dollar goes to pay for music lessons! Please consider donating today! Thank you!
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Thank you for helping me reach my goal! Because of your generosity we were to raise funds in just one week! Peter has already begun his lessons with the children as seen in this picture!
If you did not get a chance to donate to help, it's not too late! This campaign will remain open and accepting donations for the children's music lessons. I would love to have your support!
For those of you who generously gave, I will be sending details regarding the use of funds next week.
Thank you so much!
- Randi
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March is MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS MONTH! Please consider donating to bring music lessons to the children in the slums of Nairobi. They have the tools, now they need the guidance! All funds pay for music lessons! Imagine what this skill can do to lift a child in need. Thank you!
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My name is Peter Munguti. I was brought up in a children’s orphanage but not in Soweto. The Orphanage was in the village and the situation in village orphanage was much worse than what people see in the slums. There is total lack of choices and most of the children don’t really see to the success of their future dreams. To be taken in the orphanage meant that; either one or both of your parents is not alive, or you are the poorest in the village, so I happened to be picked because of both reasons. My dad died very young, he was a local musician guess that’s where I inherited my music talent.
I joined school under the sponsorship of a local church and completed my primary course, went to High school and college and graduated with a certificate in Hotel management. I had the passion to do music but the orphanage never gave me that opportunity, they wanted me to do a career that seemed right in their eyes. So at the age of 12 years, I was only practicing my guitar at the church, playing for the church choir.
I worked in couple of Hotels here in Nairobi after leaving the orphanage and with the little I got, I developed a culture to take some food and clothes to my fellow brothers and sisters in the orphanage until today. I have always wanted to do more for them, but I know that will come someday.
I joined a music School to pursue my music passion, but the music school I could afford to pay could not continue me as a student, since I was better than the teachers so I became a teacher instead, and that’s when I quit the hotel industry to music industry. After a while I started my own school of Music with the aim of helping the less fortunate talented children, that’s when I met my wife, she had come with her campus singing group to find a music programmer to help arrange their group album.
When I married, responsibilities increased with the children coming in, and the music school, having been founded with the aim of helping the disadvantaged children ( with no sponsorship or partnership when some students were nonpaying) could not support my family. So I paused on teaching to join a music band where I could earn a little to feed my family. In the band my skills outgrew the skills needed for the group and I needed to venture in a higher level of music, so in 2006 I started my own band called Harmoniqs Jazz Band. I was the leader of the band, so I had all the freedom to explore any kind of music I needed to learn. There were not many Jazz bands then, so the opportunities were open. I used to be called by media houses for Jazz programs on local TV here in Nairobi, every Friday, Morning until 2011 when I got an opportunity to travel to USA. I was invited by Steve Rudolph of the Friends of Jazz in the US , I felt very humbled to meet great Musicians like George Benson (seen with me in the picture) and Earl Klugh. I have visited the States twice. Currently I am back entertaining in Nairobi Five star Hotels and restaurants. I can play Jazz, Rock, R& B, Salsa and African Tunes and the Guitar is my specialty.
This is a good opportunity for me to give back to these children in Soweto, by showing them, teaching and guiding them on how to maximize their talent and Music career, I love to do that. Resuming back from where I paused, now as an ambassador of the less fortunate in Nairobi, Soweto slums (hoping to be able to reach the whole of Kenya to the talented but less fortunate children who can as well have a livelihood from Music like me) I say thank you all for what you are doing in Kenya and other places, and may the blessings of the Almighty God shower you. I believe there is a mission God has given everyone in this world, I feel my mission is to give hope to the hopeless but talented children and youths that are getting wasted in poverty through music. Thank you Randi for giving me this opportunity.
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We are halfway there! We might actually be able to increase our giving to make such a difference in Peter Mungati's life as our music teacher! Thank you so much everyone for helping to make a difference in these children's lives at Hope & Bright Future School in the Soweto slum of Nairobi, Kenya. If you haven't donated yet, PLEASE GIVE! Think of the difference you are making in these children' lives! THANK YOU!!!
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You have helped me reach 25% of my goal! This is so exciting! Please share with your friends so that we can reach our goal together!
Thank you!
Randi
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We have already hit 10% of our goal in just a matter of a few minutes! Thank you to everyone who is generously giving! YOU are making a difference that reaches around the world!
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