An unprecedented 68.5m people around the world have been forced from their homes due to war, violence or persecution – more than the entire population of the UK. Around 25.4m of these have fled their home countries and become refugees, over half of whom are under the age 18.
There are few legal ways for refugees to safely escape their home country and claim asylum elsewhere. Many choose to roll the dice, putting their lives in the hands of people smugglers who promise to facilitate the often-treacherous journey to a supposed country of safety.
‘You mention the word refugees and people automatically think politics but it's not about politics, it's about taking care of human beings,’ says Alyson Frazier, freelance flautist and co-founder of charity Play for Progress.
Since 2016, the non-profit organisation has established a weekly programme of music and arts-based educational and therapeutic activities at the Refugee Council Children's Section in Croydon – a charity located near the Home Office supporting unaccompanied child refugees and asylum seekers. Alongside a weekly music class, Play for Progress delivers recording and arranging classes, creative arts therapy, external performances in venues including the Southbank Centre and the V&A, cultural outings across London, half-term projects and residentials.
Before being granted legal protection and refugee status, child asylum seekers undergo a lengthy interview process, immigration cases and age disputes. Most unaccompanied minors arriving in the UK are males aged 14 to 17 who end up housed in hostels and foster homes around Croydon. Those deemed over the age of 18 are usually placed in detention centres or housed with older adults.
Despite already missing out on crucial development years, many child asylum seekers face lengthy delays until they are entered into formal education and receive little financial or physiological support while awaiting the outcome of immigration cases. The result: social isolation, stifled development and a feeling of perpetual uncertainty in legal limbo. Through music and arts, Play for Progress aims to address it all.
Friday night music session
Every Friday at 5pm, Frazier and her team of professional music tutors deliver a music class — a two-hour community-building effort including workshops, jam sessions and small group instrumental tuition on piano, flute, violin, saxophone, clarinet, cello, guitar and trumpet. The class is advertised in the Refugee Council and open to all. ’You never know who's going to walk through the door,’ Frazier says. ’It could be a young person who's attended every session for a year, or someone who's arrived in the UK that day, which means we have to be flexible and keenly aware of the energies and needs coming into the room.’
Drinks and snacks are laid out as children enter the session, most coming upstairs from the Refugee Council social area, which closes after office hours. There are normally around 50 children present, a mixture of regulars and first-timers.
The session begins with a series of small group warm-ups – everyone writes their name and home country on a piece of paper, which is then used as material for introductory games and songs.
The warm-ups transition into a ‘sharing’, where either tutors or children perform or lead a group activity. This week, two tutors lead a call-and-response song, prompting a spontaneous conga line and carnival atmosphere around the room.
Children and tutors then spread around the building for an hour instrumental tuition. Instruments are donated by individuals, shops or music charities and children can choose any instrument available. Regular attendees are also welcome to take instruments home to practise.
To finish, everyone reconvenes for a final sharing, allowing the children to showcase what they learned in their lessons. One boy demonstrates the first chords he has learned on the guitar, a group of beginner pianists sit around a table of Casio keyboards and play the Big Ben chime, and two violinists – regular attendees for two years – improvise around a modal scale with their tutor.
‘We're in a really strong position as a service delivery organisation in that everything we do is based entirely on the needs of the children and the trust and relationship you build,’ Frazier explains. Beyond the cognitive benefits of music, she emphasises the importance of nurturing supportive, long-term relationships. ‘In my experience, many music outreach programmes are not designed to be sustained. While some might be brilliant one-off workshops or projects, they only occur once, so the potentially life-changing connections made during the programmes won't last.’
Once a month, Frazier invites guest artists to the Refugee Council building to perform as part of the ‘Allies in Arts’ series. ‘A lot of musicians want to engage with this community but don't know where to start or think their skills are irrelevant, but in fact musicians possess the perfect set of skills to intuitively communicate with others non-verbally,’ she tells me. ‘The series allows musicians to interact in a way that is familiar to them, and afterwards we hope they will become vocal allies of this community.’ Recent guests have included flamenco dancers, a jazz quartet and a Brazilian carnival band.
Performance and workshop at Clore Ballroom, Southbank Centre
Evolving purpose
Born in the US, 28-year-old Frazier studied flute at Northwestern University, Illinois, before moving to the UK to study for an MA at the Royal Academy of Music. While studying in London, she undertook an outreach project at a school in India, where she fostered the early ideas of Play for Progress.
‘I really started to get to grips with how to communicate without language and question the structure of music education. What's the purpose of teaching this group of kids how to play the flute? Is it how to play a G major scale? No, it's not. It's how we use this to create joy, explore discipline, or explore yourself through this positive challenge.’
Aside from her positive experience with the children, Frazier felt many funds and resources were poorly utilised and not meeting the urgent needs of the children – a priority that would later become central to Play for Progress.
After graduating, Frazier volunteered in refugee camps in Calais and Athens and later met up with Anna MacDonald – a Scottish medical doctor and singer-songwriter who had recently returned from a child orphanage in Erbil, Iraq.
Together, they founded Play for Progress, and won the £10,000 Deutsche Bank Award for Creative Enterprise 2014 under the guise of delivering music workshops alongside aid organisations in post-conflict zones.
But two weeks before their first project in Erbil, Iraq, ISIS took control of the area, forcing the pair to change plans. Soon after, they travelled to Thailand, delivering music workshops at a school for refugee Burmese children.
After returning to the UK, Frazier and MacDonald contacted the Refugee Council Children's Section and held their first taster workshop in November 2016, ultimately shifting the charity's focus from working in post-conflict zones to working with unaccompanied children seeking refuge in the UK.
Long-term, Frazier's goal for Play for Progress is to establish a centre dedicated to creative education and the arts exclusively for the child refugee community. ‘You begin as a music project, and end up as advocacates,’ she says.
Ambitious plans include a daily programme of activities and establishing a dedicated on-site team to help and support child refugees.
Play for Progress is no ordinary education project. It provides a voice and support network to a community often lost in sensationalist headlines and quotas. As Frazier says: ‘These are children with names and needs, talents and resilience, and extraordinary potential as leaders – not just refugees.’
