So, not just a meetup. And also not just a living room – we are guests of the world famous harp player Lavinia Meijer. Lavinia, who spent a week working at a refugee camp in Lesbos via Because We Carry, opened her apartment with all her heart for this event. And it was a very warm welcome: 33 degrees Celsius at the end of August…

Marnix talks us through the beautiful and successful projects of the past few months. Great initiatives have been supported through TPM, but there is still a lot of work to be done. That is why he keeps emphasizing TPM’s mission: bringing the refugee crisis closer to home.

Connect by Music

That crisis is brought to us today by the speaker – because a meetup is not a meetup without a speaker. The word is given to Adriaan Kok, founder of Connect by Music, which helps refugee children deal with their trauma’s through music. Once just one music school in camp Kara Tepe, now at multiple locations throughout Greece.

Adriaan’s personal story, drive and a few video fragments make a large impact. Especially the snippets from mini documentary 4.1 Miles (trailer) lead to tears beneath the gold and platinum records on the wall. The images of a concert by musicians living in the camps for a Greek audience bring back a smile on everyone’s face.

To close off an afternoon of extremes, Lavinia enchants us a last time with her music and the magical composition Metamorphosis by Philip Glass.

While enjoying a few drinks and bites by Alaa, there is a lot of thought and further discussion on how to contribute. Through time, expertise, finance or products. ‘Regardless of the complexity of the crisis as a whole. Because it is about people like you and me’, as Marnix says.

This spring NPO3 broadcasted a documentary about Adriaan and his project, named ‘Vluchten in muziek’.

Text: Kasper Meijs | Photo's: Eyas Matouk. Film: Jasper Hulleman.