Sound of Music, Sound of Hope    [25-01-2009] “Someday the sun will rise. Someday, happiness will come. Someday, love will overflow. Someday, peace will come.” On January 3, the beautiful voices of children singing filled the Bucheon Civic Center부천시민회관. Their clear and sweet voices deeply touched the audience. So, who were the singers? They are very special singers from Kenya! They are called Jirani Children’s Choir지라니 어린이합창단. From November 29, 2008 to January 6, 2009, the choir went on a concert tour across Korea. It was their second time to have held concerts here. Before returning again to Korea, they played concerts for 6 months in America. The Kids Times had a chance to meet this amazing child choir in Bucheon on January 3. Jirani Children’s Choir is very special. The group is made up of 26 children from a small village in Kenya called “Gorgocho.” Gorgocho means “trash” in the Swahili language. As the name tells us, the village is a place where the country’s trash is collected. Kenya is one of the world’s poorest countries and Gorgocho is the poorest area in the country. Children living there don’t have enough food to eat. In fact, many children are dying of hunger. Also, many of them are suffering from diseases such as AIDS, but they don’t get any medical care. So, how could these children make a choir? And how could they have concerts in Korea? Here is their moving story! People say the Jirani Children’s Choir performed a miracle! The miracle happened with the help of a Korean! In 2005, a Korean pastor named Im Tae-jong went to Kenya to do mission work. One day, he went to Gorgocho village, and saw a child sitting on a trash heap helplessly. The child was putting anything he got in his hand into his mouth. When Im saw this, he felt very sad. He wanted to give hope to the children in the poor village who are living with no future. He decided to make a choir because he thought music could give these children hope. With the help of many people in Korea, Im established Jirani Children’s Choir in August, 2006. He selected about 100 children from the town. He bought a piano to use for choral practice. He made a classroom in an abandoned building beside a trash heap. Then, he invited conductor Kim Jae-chang as their music teacher. It wasn’t easy to make a choir with these children because they had never learned music before! However, they didn’t give up and practiced hard every day. After 2 months, these Kenyan children were born again as Jirani Children’s Choir with heavenly voices! Soon, they were invited to the presidential palace of Kenya and had a performance. They received high praise from the president. They also held a concert at the Kenya National Theater. They didn’t stop there. They were invited to go on tour, giving concerts in the U.S. and Korea! “This is a miracle. The choir was put together only 2 years ago,” said Kim Jae-chang. Two years ago, the children had no hopes for their future. But now, a small seed of hope began to grow in their minds. “I learned what hope is through music. I thank Korea and the Korean people for letting me learn about hope,” said Wendy, a member of Jirani Children’s Choir. Im Tae-jong said, “We wanted to give them hope for life through music. I hope Jirani Children’s Choir can become one of the world’s best choirs. I also hope the children of Kenya will have hope for the future and grow up to be wonderful national leaders,” said Im Tae-jong.     출처: 어린이 영자신문 키즈타임즈 (www.kidstimes.net)