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Mehmet Selim Baki has spent many years
in Turkey and Germany
signing off on many projects
until he decided it was time to retire.
And so, he decided to spend his retirement time on children.
He thought that the flute was not enough
as the only instrument schools taught to children.
He thought that it would benefit children of less fortunate families
to have a better music education.
And then he chose a basement room as the
start up of his project "Music for Peace".
- Doing something that involved music, peace
and children was always a dream of mine.
We've been here for over 4 years, we came across this opportunity here.
This really is all for peace.
It's not just a music education program, it carries an ideology.
Peace and justice stand behind our idea and project.
That is how we named our project.
- I had a dream of forming my own band for peace.
The specialty of the band was that it consisted of instruments
that could be carried everywhere and was polyphonic.
The accordion in some ways is
a sample of such an instrument.
It has all these characteristics.
You know the accordion, with one hand you control the rhythm
with the other you push it in and out, it's an instrument
that can be played anywhere.
It can be carried on the street and that's very important.
The hardest part is starting, and finding a student.
The students have to come from families with a low income.
We made many different attempts to find them.
We seemed to be stuck
and then with the help of our friend Yusuf Kulca
at the Hope Children Foundation we found this school.
This is the perfect neighborhood for our project.
We started here about 4.5 years ago
and today we have activities in 3 different schools.
"The Music for Peace" project is currently under way
Edirnekapý ve çevresinde 3 okulda,
in 3 schools in the Edirnekapı region.
Since its start, about 300 children
have been introduced to the rhythm of music.
The classes are after school hours
and it is totally free.
There are four fully paid teachers and many volunteer teachers
trying to open new doors to other worlds for these children.
- We don't select our students.
This is definitely not a project where we search for talent.
We are trying to put "a drop in the ocean."
These children need to have access
to their democratic rights, rights to have music education.
Although, we don't select them by talent per se, there are extremely talented kids who stand out.
We try to assess them separately.
- For some reason people find it hard to believe that
someone could want to do something
and not expecting anything in return.
I sense that surprise when I tell them what I am doing.
Yet I feel that this is the biggest legacy we can pass on to our children.
Instead of having one or two extra homes,
I take more pleasure in realizing the project and leaving this legacy behind.
People need to look at it that way.
If we want to live in peace, tranquility,
we have to do something about it.
I think that everyone in this unjust world
has to be able to do something to give back.
Mehmet Selim Baki chose to live his retirement not slipping away from life,
but instead helping to bring new lives.
In his "Music for Peace" project he brought soul to the children through music.
Starting off in a little room in a basement, he has touched the lives of hundreds of children.
He made a huge difference in the lives of children and their families.