Pula, Croatia: Balkans' Summer Music Camp

The Balkans' Summer Music Camp was first established in 1995. Nigel Osborne's initiative was to address the needs of children who had been victims of trauma caught in conflict and warlocked zones in the former Yugoslavia. Through a professional exchange with Nigel Osborne last year at the Cambridge Music Conference, my sister Catherine Carmack (12.10.57–12.12.03) decided to work as a volunteer at the camp this summer. Owing to her untimely death I went in her place, to observe the creative and curative process of the children's development. About 35 children from the Special School of Mostar, Bosnia Herzegovina came to the Adriatic for a week's vacation on the coast of Croatia. Most of these children live in an orphanage in Mostar, but are receiving music therapy through the Pavarotti Music Centre. Although most of the children were attended by carers, a few of the children were accompanied by their mothers. Many of the children are primarily suffering from exposure to violence and remain traumatized. Some of them have special needs including Down's Syndrome; two were marginally disabled with cerebral palsy.