The Story Exchange, Music, Entertainment, India, Child, Poverty, EmpowermentYour Name: Faith Gonsalves

Business Name: Music Basti (of Integrated Development Education Association), a community music and media learning service

Type of Business: Social Enterprise/Non Profit Organization

Business Location: New Delhi, India

Website www.musicbasti.org
Twitter @MusicBasti
Facebook www.facebook.com/pages/Music-Basti/188461577841801

Reason for starting
“Music Basti” was set up in 2008, to raise awareness on the situation of at-risk children in Delhi/India, through music projects led by youth and artists.

How do you define success?
Success will be a world where we are able to fulfill our vision, to live in a world where the voices of at-risk children and youth are heard through large scale civil society partnership and action, and are able to meaningfully impact our shared trajectory of making poverty history.

Biggest Success
The biggest success of the project “Music Basti” since it was set up in 2008, is the continuity of majorly self-funded projects, led by a collective of artists and volunteers. Now, in 2013, the project has developed partnerships with companies and non-proft organizations that are helping shift the model from being in a large part self-funded, to funding activities with children, training for artists and volunteers, as well as research and documentation to highlight the impact of the music related projects, and their relevance to positively impacting mainstream educational priorities of the children involved as participants, and in lending to the overall development of life-skills (in particular, confidence and communication).

What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
The foremost challenges in developing and implementing community arts projects focused on under-served communities, especially at-risk children and youth, include changing mindsets where the norm is to allow these communities to live on margins of society, economy, education and culture. The role and immense potential of youth-action is also not explored enough, and poses a great risk as well as asset. Poverty and its corollary powerlessness are overcome first by listening to the voices of the poor and their perspectives, aspirations and cultural identities. It is here that music finds great importance, and projects like “Music Basti” become relevant in sharing the voices of at-risk children and youth, in order to impact change in societal mindsets and also potentially at the level of government policy and action.