MUSIC HEALS. BE A PART OF THAT.
Ryan's Guitar's Project is a work of St. Paul's Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity. It is part of the 1,600 year old charitable expression of the monks of Mount Athos. All contributions are 100% tax deductible.
Childhood is under attack.
Children are disoriented and detached. They speak in flat tones and give one word answers. They are quick to anger and slow to communicate and increasingly at risk of radicalization. What were once young members of the largest, happiest middle class childhood experience in the Middle East have become the broken refuse of war. Often they want revenge for lost mothers, sisters, fathers and brothers. Giving children guitars not guns can heal them and end the cycle of violence. Musical education can reach places traditional education cannot and inoculate children and teenagers against fundamentalist Islamic preaching which is often the only entertainment for refugees.
Over 9 million who have fled their homes since war began in Syria in March 2011 — 2.5 million refugees and 6.5 million displaced inside Syria. In April Lebanon registered its 1 millionth Syrian refugee even though it has no official refugee camps. Over half are children younger than 18.
The Guitars Project addresses three issues. First, it provides music instruction to students already enrolled in our schools and then leverages that infrastructure to aid as many dispossessed children (either refugees or simply poor) as possible. Second, it creates an opportunity for Americans from a variety of faith traditions to get to know the challenges of growing up Arab in an intimate way away from brash news headlines. Finally, it by teaching children to express themselves with guitars, not guns, it breaks a cycle of fanaticism and contributes to global security.
Ryan's Guitar's Project is a work of St. Paul's Foundation, a 501(c)3 charity, EIN 46-1614484. It is part of the 1,600 year old charitable expression of the monks of Mount Athos. All contributions are 100% tax deductible.