Paul Bothner Music:Claremont Unclaimed

The Athlone Academy of Music (AAM) is a non-profit organisation established in 1994 with the sole aim of providing music tuition within the Athlone area. This initiative has now expanded and has grown to include the greater Athlone community residing along the Klipfontein corridor including Langa, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Retreat, Steenberg, Atlantis and Malmesbury to name but a few. The communities in and around Athlone have tried but there has not always been a cohesive attempt to make sure that music education is not lost to our children. Music tuition has shown to help with discipline, motivation and a sense of belonging. Three basic values that children from the poorer disadvantaged communities need plenty of. We all know that these communities suffer under the scourge of substance abuse, disease, abuse against women and children and a general decay of the social fibre in society. This social decay is largely a result of unemployment, poverty and idleness. We at the Academy feel obliged to create opportunities for children in the communities we serve to be active in music education and in so doing, eradicate some of the social pathologies we are faced with on a daily basis.