Rabat, 11 November 2015. – The IMC Music Rights Award was once again given to a programme that supports in an exemplary way the Five Music Rights proclaimed by the International Music Council. The 2015 recipient of the 2015 Award are the SOCIAL PROJECTS of the Fayha Choir from Tripoli, Lebanon. The programme was nominated by the European Choral Federation – Europa Cantat, a long-time member of the IMC, and selected by a panel of specialists.

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Our projects aim to rid children and youth from all kinds of deviation including dropping out of school, dealing/doing drugs, joining gangs, carrying arms, and so on. It is our firm belief that this can solely be done by the power of music, especially choir singing.

We are absolutely convinced that this could only be achieved throughout the power of music in general and the power of choir singing in particular. This power helps us promote many significant concepts such as learning to coexist with others and to harmonize, accepting and respecting others, promoting peace, and finally understanding the importance of ones heritage and culture. Recent studies have shown that choir singing plays an important role in the enhancement of the psychological wellness of singers, increases their self-esteem and self-confidence, trains them to become more disciplined, and increases their memory capacity. All these benefits of choir singing improve the general social skills of singers. The advantages of choir singing are numerous and their effects on children are extremely powerful on their general upbringing.

• UNESCO Choir (2009-2013): It is a project between Fayha Choir and UNESCO regional office in Beirut. The members are students from public schools around Lebanon. The project aims to:
  

  - Allow access to extra-curricular activities for marginalized children in public primary schools in selected locations in Lebanon

  - Pilot the use of extracurricular activities in playing a role in the retention of at-risk and the reinsertion of out-of-school children in Lebanon.

  More than 10,000 children were involved in the project.

• Lebanese Palestinian Choir (2009 - 2011): After the war of Nahr El Bared Palestinian Camp in North Lebanon, UNDP with Fayha Choir implemented this project to improve the relation between the Palestinians (residents of the camp) and Lebanese youth (from villages surrounding the camp).
• Safadi Choir (2014): A project with Safadi Foundation for children in one of the underprivileged areas in North Lebanon, where exists all kinds of social, political, security, economical problems...
• Aghanina Choir (our Songs) (since 2014): With Qattan Foundation (Palestine). Members are Children and Youth: Palestinians from Beddawi Camp, and Lebanese from Tripoli including also Syrian refugees. The objective of this project is to promote and improve the Palestinian Musical Heritage.
• The NRC Children Choir: Syrian refugees Children from the region of Akkar in North Lebanon. This project is in coordination with the Norwegian Refugee Council (since 2013).
• The NRC Youth Choir: Syrian refugees youth from the region of Akkar in North Lebanon. This project is in coordination with the Norwegian Refugee Council (since 2015).
• Sonbola Choir (Since 2014): In coordination with the Association Sonbula for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon fund by Nai Association in Austria. 150 refugee children from different camps in the region of Bekaa.
• The Social Support Society Choir for Syrian refugees in the Bekaa region (since 2015).
• The Tebbaneh Choir, with teenagers from the region of Tebbaneh, known for its social, economic and specially security problems with René Mouawad Foundation (since 2016).

This table below shows the progress of singers during trainings