This is a new and innovative programme being funded jointly by the McCabe Educational Trust and the Diocese of Rochester. The key players are Claire Tillotson a music therapist from Bromley, a Palestinian social worker from Bethlehem ‘pictured above’, and Canon Paul Miller a vicar in the diocese. We are enormously grateful to Bishop Michael Nazir Ali for choosing this project for his Christmas appeal. £18,500 has now been raised towards our project target of £30,000. 

This is just one of the many projects coming to fruition as a direct result of donations received from McCabe travellers. 

Our partner in Bethlehem is the SOS Children’s Village, where Palestinian social workers such as Irene are being introduced to Music Therapy. Our picture shows Irene working with a group of orphans, using new musical instruments that we provided. Claire has just returned from a third visit to the village to support the training of staff such as Irene and reports that the project is now about to enter a new exciting phase.

Musicians in Bethlehem are being identified for an audition programme planned for July when it is hoped a candidate will be selected to train in London for a Music Therapy qualification. It is anticipated the training will begin in September 2009 and by the summer of 2011, he or she will be employed by the SOS village as a resident music therapist.

Last year the Trust doubled the amount it gave in grants. This year we are ambitious to increase this amount. The projects we support are not mainstream but worthy causes we have encountered on pilgrimage that are now integral to the vision of McCabe Pilgrimages and its charitable wing, the McCabe Educational Trust.

THANK YOU !

09 May 2008