R110 000 Boost for Music Education on Cape Flats

On Saturday November 17 2007, at the Silverlea Primary School, the three partners handed over musical instruments and funding worth a total of R110 000 to the Athlone Academy of Music at a function attended by parents, students and community members.

The donation is aimed at improving the quality of learning for the nearly 500 pupils attending the Academy. It serves young people on the Cape Flats by identifying and developing community through music education. The study of music is presented to develop talent and as an alternative to gangsterism and drug abuse amongst our youth.

Ms Rosieda Shabodien has been using the Premier's Spouse's Fund to bring much-needed upliftment in the areas of health, education and culture.

"Every child has a talent that needs to be discovered and this is made possible through the work of centres such as the Athlone Academy of Music. If given the opportunities and encouragement, children can achieve amazing things, even against the odds. Those odds are particularly daunting on the Cape Flats, where drugs, gangs and crime pose some of the greatest threats to our future - children and the youth. We hope our modest contribution will assist in providing young people with alternatives to the life which gangs and drugs offers," Ms Shabodien told some 300 guests.

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport donates a large part of the funding in this partnership as part of its mission of providing services in the fields of arts, culture, heritage, sport and recreation to improve the quality of life for people of the Western Cape.

Cultural Affairs and Sport MEC Whitey Jacobs said: "Our financial contribution and assistance to the Athlone Music Academy is a strategic intervention premised on our broad objectives of developing different music genres. The academy has, for many years, struggled to make ends meet and yet continued to craft and produce quality voices and musicians for our province. I am grateful to the co-sponsors of the academy for ensuring our collective efforts of developing music are realized,"
Zenariah Barends Executive Director of Sekunjalo Corporate Services said: "Support for the arts, particularly music, is high on the Corporate Social Investment agenda of Sekunjalo. We are very happy to partner the public sector to assist, develop and empower in making a mere possibility a reality".

For further information
Mansoor Jaffer
Director: Communication Programmes
Tel: 021 483 8706
Email: mjaffer@pgwc.gov.za

Issued by:
Jeremy Michaels
Chief Director: Communications
Department of the Premier
Provincial Government of the Western Cape
Cell: +27 (0)82 772 1122
Office: +27 (0)21 483 9955
Fax: +27 (0)21 483 7196
Email: jmichaels@pgwc.gov.za
Postal address: PO Box 659, Cape Town, 8000.
Physical address: Office of the Premier, Mezzanine Level, M7, 7 Wale Street, Cape Town, South Africa, 8001.
Website: http://www.westerncape.gov.za/premier

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