39 years ago José Antonio Abreu, a musician, economist, politician, educator, activist and a passionate Venezuelan, began something quite extraordinary in the poorest communities of Venezuela.
In a local garage, with just 11 kids, Abreu began what was to become one of the most successful social development programmes on the planet, and one that many richer nations have since sought to emulate. El Sistema – literally, the system – was implemented with the idea of bringing musical education back into the lives of children in a country plagued by a rising homicide rate, and is now statistically the second most dangerous nation on earth. The project has gone from strength to strength, and one of the happy bi-products of improving the social conditions of communities in Venezuela is an inspiring collection of world-renowned youth and graduate orchestras, the most famous of which – the Simón Bolívar Orchestra – has toured all over, playing in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall.
The scheme now has well over quarter of a millions students, about 380,000, with roughly 15,000 teachers and musical instructors taking on the challenge of guiding this social engineering project in all 23 provinces of Venezuela. An estimated 60% of the nation live in poverty, and of those who regularly attend the scheme, 80-90% are from the poorest socio-economic backgrounds. The ideology pushing the project is always with a long-term positive impact in mind: to get kids off the street and into the classrooms, away from drugs, gang warfare, and violence. As well as promoting a sense of complete inclusion and teamwork, it’s thought that for every child who takes part in El Sistema, there will be at least 3 adults supporting them from the sidelines. The scope is impressive, and although progress and success is monitored through the music created, Abreu maintains that it is about more than that. That it is ‘a human development project, to strengthen the moral and spiritual development of the country’. And it seems to be working.
