Sunday Times 2
Keeping the wagon wheel in motion
These are busy days for the Country Music Foundation (CMF). It has been 27 years since they held their first flagship event –the Country Roads Concert for Children and the vibrant team has managed to keep the wagon wheel in motion. Amid the hubbub of preparations for this year’s concert on Sunday, October 11, the indefatigable President of the CMF, Feizal Samath trekked down the Country Roads of almost three decades, sharing with us special moments in their journey for children.
Bob Livingston entertained tsunami affected children in a Moratuwa camp
It all began in the 1980′s, he recalls. Their first concert raised a grand total of Rs. 30, 000 “big money at the time”. Concert proceeds have always been donated to charitable causes and projects benefiting children. Over the past two or more decades of Country Roads, Sri Lanka’s volatile political scene has on occasion threatened the concert. “I think it was our first concert” Feizal recalls, when during the JVP hartals, a curfew was announced while the show was on. Feizal remembers panicking as he told the evening’s MC, Arun Dias Bandaranaike to give his audience the option of leaving early. Curtains went down dangerously close to curfew time, with just an hour to spare but everyone stayed until the end.
Almost 30 years later, Country Roads’ audience is still committed, albeit greyer. Once in the whirlwind which precedes staging a show “I forgot to put up the donation box, but soon an old lady with a walking stick came up and asked why the box wasn’t around,” Feizal remembers. Patrons who keep them on their toes for top notch music have also been eager to support the cause, he says.
Foundation ceremony for CMF- supported pre-school in Vavuniya in 2004
Donating funds soon changed into active involvement on the CMF’s part. Here too, Feizal says, experience has been an apt teacher. It’s important to go on the field to visit the beneficiaries he feels. This lesson was imparted while he was in a pre-school the CMF had built in Vavuniya. “The village Grama Sevaka told me that the teacher was a volunteer which meant students could be stranded if the teacher found paid employment. We had finished our part by constructing the building but it would be just a shell if not equipped to be well used,” he says. That got them thinking about projects that are sustainable.
“It’s the need of the community which should be met” as opposed to imposing on them projects which have little or temporary purpose. On another occasion they donated two tube wells in the Medawachchiya region. While working on a different project with UNICEF which partnered with CMF as early as 1989, they had wanted to visit two villages where the wells were set-up. There was a water scarcity in the area and the wells had to be significantly deep. They could only visit one as the other had been acquired by the LTTE. “It was heartening to see the well about 4-5 years later well maintained in working order.” Villagers also reported that the other well, although out of their reach was equally well kept.
It’s not always the grandest gesture, their message has always been “do something for children- it doesn’t have to be big.” The projects have ranged from tackling the mosquito menace by handing out 1,500 mosquito nets in Moneragala to funding a Gypsy community in Anuradhapura to acquire birth certificates and NICs. They have worked with UNICEF and organisations such as Save the Children with solid monitoring mechanisms.
In February 2005 just months after the devastating Tsunami of 2004, the Country Roads concert featured survivors of the disaster relating their stories. Generous donations poured in, when favourites from Germany, The Mavericks brought not just their music to Sri Lanka, but “around a million rupees” raised in their village, Burscheid.
American folk singer Bob Livingston was also a keen member of the line-up that year entertained tsunami affected children in a Moratuwa camp. ” Bob likes to have a lot of interaction when performing” Feizal recalls, and when his traditional tunes didn’t spark recognition with his audience at the camp, he brought down the house with “nursery rhymes”.
Applause is not what drives Feizal and his dedicated CMF team who work silently behind the scenes to make the concert happen. For him it’s all worthwhile to see “our work being translated into smiles”. With a heartfelt thank you to audiences which supported a concept which began 27 years ago, he adds “it has rubbed-off well on others”.
A part of the Country Roads family for over 12 years, Dirk from the German band Mavericks and singer Astrid Brook from UK will talk about their journey down the Country Roads at an exclusive Rs.10, 000 a plate dinner at Mount Lavinia Hotel on Saturday, October 10. Tickets can be purchased at www.tickets.lk , via SMS and in selected stores. Donations can be made at www.help.lk .
When music and charity combine
The German Embassy in collaboration with the Country Music Foundation presents The Mavericks with Astrid Brook in concert for charity. The Mavericks, who make an annual visit to Sri Lanka to participate in the Country Roads concert for children, will be playing a mixture of retro and country music at the Barefoot Café on Friday, October 9 from 7.30p.m. onwards. The Mavericks are joined by British artist Astrid Brook.
The entire proceeds from the ticket sales for the event will go towards Meth Mihira School of Special Education in Koralawella, Moratuwa. The school is run by the Sisters of Charity.
Tickets are now on sale at the Barefoot Café, Goethe Institut and the German Embassy Colombo. Tickets are priced at Rs.1000.