ABC of OCC- M

Children in Belraus entertaining the OCC team
before a distribution of shoeboxes

M is for Music. There is so much I can say about OCC and music. From the music that has been written about the shoeboxes as people become inspired by the work - '(the best for me was Melisa Bester's Love in a Box' ) - to the music that echoes around the OCC warehouses as the volunteers sing and dance their way through the checking of the boxes (sometimes!)

Overseas, there's the music that welcomes us as we go into schools to deliver the shoeboxes. As part of a huge welcome to us, we have been sung traditional folk music in all the countries that we visit, fun nursery rhymes by little ones in their own languages and invited to dance in joyous thanksgiving events for the shoeboxes. Perhaps best of all, the rousing choruses of the children in Kenya and Liberia as they bang out rhythms on the shoeboxes in a frenzy of anticipation before they open their boxes.

Where OCC and music came together in sweet harmony was back in Kosova in 2006, when Miroslav, a child living in a poor community with his parents opened a box and drew out a little guitar. This brought tears to the father's eyes. He explained that he had been a musician, but could no longer perform as his instruments had been sold long ago to feed the family. I sometimes wonder whether Miroslav was ever inspired to take up music because of the shoebox....