The CSR arm of duty free and travel retailer, Flemingo International, has kicked off 2016 as co-sponsor for The Music Project’s participation in Sri Lanka’s recent Galle Literary Festival.

Flemingo Foundation has been working with The Music Project [inspired by El Sistema, the acclaimed music education programme started in Venezuela] for the past two years and it now has over 500 children taking part.

The Galle Festival brings thousands of global visitors to the ancient Unesco city and this year it featured over 90 international writes, poets, dramatists, musicians and artists. Forty children from TMP played to a packed crowd.

TMP aims to foster a sense of musical achievement on an individual level by providing those whose lives might have been affected by poverty, war or abuse, a therapeutic and holistic opportunity to excel and fulfil their own potential through music.

The project also provides links between children from the north and south of Sri Lanka using music as the link language to achieve social cohesion and harmony. As the programme progresses, the two orchestral communities from north and south will perform and participate in workshops.

Since 2013, the Flemingo Foundation had also been running an educational and humanitarian project called Educate to Protect to raise awareness among school children, their parents and educators, about silent child abuse. In two years, the programme had reached out to more than 25,000 children and 6,000 adults.

Continuing its work with children, the Flemingo Foundation is now exploring opportunities to further partner with The Music Project and two other organisations in 2016.

The next fund raising activity for TMR and Flemingo is a David Bowie tribute night.