The children at Cargilfield are fundraising to support Superar in Bosnia and Herzegovina as they set up what will be the first children's orchestra ever in Sarajevo.

Superar is a European organisation which works with professional musicians to offer children and young people free access to cultural education, so that they can benefit from the multi-layered positive impact of music irrespective of their cultural, religious, linguistic and financial backgrounds.

Their vision is:

• To support children and young people in their personal development through comprehensive, free, long-term music programs, to discover their potential and expand their horizons.

• To improve the relationships between people across all social, cultural, religious, and linguistic divides.

• And thereby strengthen the potential and opportunities of the youngest of us in tomorrow’s society.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina they already run a successful children choir and have recently set up a violin class as the first step towards building a children's orchestra. The children initially made their own violins out of cardboard in order to learn the basics; now they are ready to move onto real violins, which we hope to fund for them.

We are holding a 'violin-a-thon' on Tuesday 1st December. Our aim is to play the violin continuously in the school entrance foyer, one person passing on to the next, for the entire school day, from 8.30am to 5pm. We hope to include every violinist in school, including some of our newest starters. This will be quite a challenge – but it is a very worthwhile cause! We will be sharing our playing not only with the school but also via a stream with parents and friends. We hope that this will be the start of a permanent link between our school and Superar in Sarajevo.

Our friends in Bosnia and Herzegovina write:

“With your financial support to purchase violins, you can open the door for children and give them an opportunity they may have never had before. A musical instrument can change someone’s life. Your support and help will be appreciated and will help us maintain a program based on a model of inclusive education that develops children’s soft skills and encourages reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

We would be very grateful for your generous donations in support of our efforts. To provide each child with a violin costs £70; £1500 will provide enough violins for the whole group.