GIFT OF MUSIC
Toronto students Skype with young Syrian refugees to sing songs and ask about each other’s countries,
Toronto students use Skype to sing songs with children in Jordan
A dozen kids from Toronto eagerly gathered around a laptop Wednesday morning, ready to show off their singing voices and a recorder.
On Skype, a group of young Syrian refugees in Azraq, Jordan, had the same tools, ready to share music from the other side of the world.
They sang songs, played a few tunes on their recorders and offered generous applause for every effort. Both groups peppered Lexi Shereshewsky, who is fluent in English and Arabic, with questions about life in each other’s countries.
From Jordan, Shereshewsky translated for her students, giving them insight into what life in Canada is like. This meetup was the first of its kind for Bob McKitrick, who runs a March Break music camp for kids who attend Dixon Hall Music School in Toronto, where he has been director for 18 years.
After reading about a Canadian woman who built a school in Jordan to help Syrian refugees, he was inspired to take action as well. Online, he met Shereshewsky, the founder of the Syria Fund, an organization that helps Syrian refugees, and proposed that the two sets of children meet.
“I tossed this idea by her saying we’re doing a music camp and we’d love to sing some songs and she loved it,” McKitrick said. “This is pretty momentous, what we did today.”
It is the 10th year of the camp, held at Hart House Farm. It’s a vast, picturesque plot of land in Caledon, owned by the University of Toronto, with a spacious house for lodging. At one point during the Skype meeting, an instructor took the laptop outside to show the Syrian kids snow, which they don’t see in Jordan.
By setting up a Skype session with Syrian refugees, he wanted to put “names and faces on kids who have been affected” by the war. One major effect of the war has been an interruption in the education of Syrian children, many of whom missed out on years of schooling. Shereshewsky worked with other aid groups to build the school in Azraq, teaching more than 100 kids (ages 6-14), Arabic, math, science and English.
This week is music week for the students, who learn about music from their region and around the world.
“We want to give them pride in their own culture and things they know, but also expose them to different things,” Shereshewsky said.
Shereshewsky hopes to expand the age range at the Azraq school, and work to build more schools in Jordan for Syrian refugees.