Fifteen keyboards. State-of-the-art equipment. A music centre worth R2 million. Belhar High School had almost everything it needed to develop the next generation of young musicians.
Except one rather important thing. Time.
While children at more affluent schools often began private music lessons in primary school, many learners at Belhar were only introduced to music in Grade 10, when they were expected to begin studying it as an examination subject.
Proud Partners realised that the answer was to start much earlier.
Working with the Western Cape Department of Education, Belhar High School and three neighbouring feeder schools, we helped establish a programme giving 45 talented Grade 5 learners access to weekly music lessons at Belhar's excellent facilities.
With assistance from Yamaha, Proud Partners donated a keyboard to each primary school and funded the music teacher responsible for the programme.
But why stop there?
The initiative expanded to another 11 primary schools, each receiving a keyboard. Two teachers from each of the 14 schools also attended weekly music lessons funded by Proud Partners. In return, every teacher undertook to teach two children at their own school.
It was an ambitious initiative built on a wonderfully simple idea.
The more people you teach, the more people there are to pass the music on.