Skip to main content
El Salvador

¡Soy Música!

El Salvador, the most densely populated country in Central America, suffered from a brutal civil war between 1980 and 1992. Almost three decades after signing a peace treaty, the country is still wracked by gang violence, poverty and inequality. Countless Salvadorans have been forced to flee their homes.

This history of systemic injustice and the ongoing legacy of violence left the population, youth and women especially, in vulnerable conditions. Many drop out of school, live in dysfunctional family structures and are at high risk of experiencing violence and isolation.

Soy Música was born in 2017, an initiative with the Salvadoran Ministry of Education and UNICEF. The program aims to foster a culture of peaceful coexistence through arts and music within the national school system.

Training for school teachers and community leaders

Soy Música began in 2017, as a collaboration between UNICEF, the Salvadoran Ministry of Education and Musicians Without Borders. Soy Música aims to build the capacity within the Ministry of Education in music leadership for peaceful coexistence.

This phase of capacity building took place between 2017 and 2020. During those years, Musicians Without Borders trained two groups of school teachers and community leaders to become the future trainer team in El Salvador. This process also produced a comprehensive training curriculum for music leadership, adapted to the local Salvadoran context.

In 2021 and 2022, the Salvadoran trainers hosted the first cycle of the local training program, with support from Musicians Without Borders. This first cycle trained more than 300 teachers on a national scale, who will go on to reach another 500 teachers and more than 8.000 students.

Soy Música in schools and in the community

Between 2017 and 2022, over a thousand school teachers and community leaders nationwide were introduced to the Soy Música methodology and its nonviolent principles. Thanks to this reach, Soy Música has become embedded in many classrooms and community spaces, opening doors and creating space for new initiatives for children and youth. The impact of the project is growing every day, empowering not only children and youth, but the school teachers and community leaders as well.

Soy Música on TV

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging mobility and students’ accessibility, Soy Música was invited to join the Ministry of Education’s Learn From Home initiative. Musicians Without Borders worked with local trainers to turn the principles and values of Soy Música into a children’s TV program. Soy Música has produced regular content for this initiative, and exponentially raised the outreach of the program by reaching thousands of children throughout the country.

Miguel Ortega Luque

Regional program manager Central America

Amanda Koser-Gillespie

Music leadership trainer

Otto de Jong

Music leadership trainer

Pepe García

Music leadership trainer

Christa Tinari

Peace education trainer

Jim Pinchen

Music leadership trainer

Juan David Garzón

Music leadership trainer

Emma Smith

Music leadership trainer

Sherwin Kirindongo

Music leadership trainer

Filter

Soy Música promotes music as a tool to build a culture of peace

This article has been translated from the original article by UNICEF El Salvador, authored by…
January 13, 2023

Challenging violence with creativity

Marna joined Soy Música in its second year. She teaches at a school in Colonia…
June 4, 2020

Connecting through music: music making in Suchitoto

by Miguel Ortega “We are born with creativity, we just need the space to develop…
December 3, 2018

Established in
2017

Active in
El Salvador

Key partners
UNICEF
Ministry of Education El Salvador

Key numbers

626

trainees received training

61384

children reached through Soy Música