Project Launch:

The Casa de la Cultura of La Palma provides an excellent space for community members of La Palma, El Salvador to participate in various types of courses and workshops focused on sharing cultural knowledge. Although the Casa de la Cultura houses several types of traditional musical instruments and its staff has long known the desire of local youth to learn to play them, the organization has been unable to offer a folk music course due to lack of funds to pay an instructor. With a $499 grant from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program in 2010, a local musician was hired to teach a course in traditional Salvadoran folk music to local youth. The course taught each student to play a traditional musical instrument and prepared them to perform folk music as a group at local events. The youth who participated not only felt an increased sense of self-esteem by learning a new skill and sharing their talent with the community, but also learned beautiful and important cultural traditions to pass on to future generations. In an increasingly globalized world where influences from outside cultures and traditions abound, this project succeeded in helping a community keep alive its folk music traditions and impart a greater sense of pride in culture on local youth.