Giving These Kibera Kids Instruments to Fight Their Way Out of Poverty

Funk for Life © is a project aimed at raising public awareness about the acute and basic needs in urban slums. The idea behind Funk For Life© was formulated, hatched and created by Nils Landgren, Magnum Coltrane Price (Jazz artists) & Dan Sermand (former General Director of Doctors without Borders Sweden), and supported by Mattias Klum, Peter Östlund & Schiaffino Musarra (Photographers/Film makers).

Covering an area of 2.5 square kilometres, Kibera has a population density of approximately 2000 inhabitants per hectare as well as a HIV prevalence rate estimated at between 10-13% . Despite the close to half a million strong population, very few public investments are made in Kibera, leading to a severe lack of clean water, electricity, sanitation, education and healthcare.

What the Funk For Life project seeks to do is provide slum kids with musical instruments and give them a chance to learn how to play and to develop their musical skills. This could of course be used to empower them to bring themselves out of poverty through utilising these talents for a constructive purpose. The Funk For Life project aims to inspire and enable young people to find a way out of the slums.

In the past, Nils Landgren has been involved in projects dedicated to providing instruments and musical instruction to children in the slums in South Africa and Brazil. Have a look at this feature trailer video about just what Medicines San Frontieres and Funk For Life are doing within Kibera, followed by a video of Nils Landgren performing at a concert in England recently:

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