Stave House in the Sahara is a small independent project working with Saharawi primary schools & local teachers to implement early childhood music education through English in the Saharawi refugee camps (Tindouf, SW Algeria).

These camps, largely forgotten by the international community, have survived for over 40 years in one of the harshest parts of the Sahara desert. This has put a strain on traditional cultural transmission channels. The innovative and fun Stave House teaching methods and materials used draw on storytelling and aim to strengthen the rich oral traditions underpinning Saharawi culture.

The project is run by Ethnomusicologist & Music Teacher Violeta Ruano, in collaboration with the local Saharawi primary school of Lal Andala (Boujdour camp) and the Saharawi Ministry of Education. Since our pilot phase in the spring of 2016, the project has successfully trained three Saharawi local teachers and provided music lessons for over 60 children. In April 2018 we had our first ever graduation ceremony, in which 25 students received their well-earned Stave House Music Level 1 diplomas, supported by the London College of Music.

Throughout the years, the project has worked as a collaborative effort, getting most of its funds from online and offline crowdfunding campaigns run by ourselves and supportive organisations such as Stave House UK, Sandblast-Arts, Oxfam Solidarité and the Swiss Association of Friends of the Saharawi People (Basel, Switzerland).

We're now raising funds for the next academic year, when the Saharawi teachers will be teaching Stave House Level 1 and Level 2 for the first time completely on their own! Do you want to get involved? Please get in touch!

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How far does your money go?

£15 - school materials for 1 child for 1 term

£50 - 1 set of classroom instruments

£100 - 1 month salary of a local teacher

£300 - 1 electronic keyboard for the whole class

£500 - RTN flight London-Tindouf for our volunteer project manager