I Love Life
In 2013, Al Mada developed and completed an arts-based child protection and educational project with generous support from the Qattan Foundation and in partnership with UNICEF. This innovative project resulted with the production of our first CD for children called I Love Life.
This family-friendly CD introduces pre-school and primary school children to new educational concepts in a stimulating and thought-provoking way through 8 original songs. The album’s songs were composed by the Palestinian musician and composer Odeh Turjman, the founder and artistic director of Al-Mada, and the lyrics were written by Khaled Juma’, a Palestinian poet from Gaza who has written lyrics for numerous songs for children and adults. The songs are about children’s rights and touch on the themes of equality, the right to life, protection from child labor, and safety from conflict.
The album was recorded and edited in Al-Mada’s state-of-the-art recording studio by a team of professional musicians and technicians and a group of eight Palestinian children aged 8-12. 2000 copies of the CD were printed and 1000 of them were distributed to kindergartens and schools across the occupied Palestinian Territories in partnership with the Ministry of Education, UNRWA and ANERA. Our goal is to increase the number of children who have access to this CD in Palestine and to make it available regionally and in the diaspora, as well.
The idea for I Love Life came from the shortage of local/Palestinian musical resources that are directed at children. Educators, especially, lack creative and educational supplies and have been forced to rely on outdated materials and to use educational resources from countries that have little cultural relevance to children living in Palestinian society.
Al-Mada believes that art and creativity are essential to healthy child development and committed to strengthen the role of music in the educational process for Palestinian children. We are thrilled to have created a culturally- and linguistically- sensitive product that is specific to the Palestinian context, while also spreading awareness about universal topics, such as human rights, peace, the environment and respect for oneself and community. Even adults highly enjoy this unique CD and we hope you will, too!