In Cairo, Egypt, there is a school for girls who are blind and are playing instruments in an orchestra. It's the only orchestra
...
with blind people only.
Tags:Blind Girls Playing in the Egyptian Orchestra,blind people orchestra in cairo,children right,childrens right,earth report,musical school in cairo for blind people,television for the environment,tve
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Transcript
Blind Girls Playing in the Egyptian Orchestra
Male: Fourteen-year-old Sammy Mustafa is an accomplished musician, one of the best in her group at school. Her skills are all the more remarkable because she’s blind, and so all of her friends. They are the girl’s school in the Egyptian capital Cairo has formed the world’s only orchestra’s, the blind people.
Female: My ambition is to show the world that blind people have no difficulty playing music. They can be good at music or anything
Male: Conductor, Ahmed Avaeleyd knows his pupils can't see him but nevertheless his hands keep time to the music. He’s a strict teacher but believes he is also a fan.
Ahmed: Some of the girls look on me as more of a father than their real fathers. And that comes from being passionate, not from being tough. They know I have to bring them up to be good.
Male: The orchestra’s success is based on hard work. The girls put in hours of practice everyday as well as doing normal academic studies. The strings, percussion and the wind instrument plays practice simple key until they know the music by heart. To help them, music sheets are painstakingly translated into Braille.
Female: I get a notebook like this one and then I start copying so that the girls can learn it by heart.
Male: Amani Mardof is only seven and she’s a newcomer to the school but many of the other pupils there, she comes from a poor background. One of them has to pay for their tuition. The school is supported from private and government donations.
Male: My father read an advertisement in the newspaper about a school called Light and Hope and I told him I would like to go to it.
Male: The teachers are also blind and some are students here themselves. They’re in a good position to understand the problems that are faced by musicians.
Female: For a blind violinist, the movement of the hand is more difficult than for someone who can see. A sighted person can see where the bow is going and they can use aids like mirrors.
Male: The main purpose of the school has been to integrate the children into a society where handicapped people have few rights. Here, they can also learn skills like carpet weaving and sewing. The girls are given wages for their work and the revenue from sales helps to finance the school.
Female: If you have to give this girl the impression that they are not less than anybody and again this really, they want to prove everybody that they can do everything.
Male: There are moments of relaxation but most of all the girls anticipate the time when they can make it to the senior orchestra to be given the chance to shine and lime up. The Light and Hope Orchestra is performed in public hundreds of times. The success is taking it on foreign tours all around the world and under of couples awards.
In the rehearsal room, Ahmed Avaeleyd brings the music to a stop and reprimands this performance. Meanwhile, in the antique covers, another child puts in more hours of practice in the hope that one day she too will be given the opportunity to demonstrate her skills to a wider audience.
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