The HSBC Cares For Children Fund and the Vodafone Malta Foundation have joined forces to donate an OptiMusic device to the Dun Manwel Attard School in Wardija.

This is the third OptiMusic device being donated to a special school in Malta, following the donation made by the HSBC Cares For Children Fund to the Professor Guze Aquilina Primary School in Sannat and the joint donation by HSBC Cares For Children Fund and the Vodafone Malta Foundation to the San Miguel Febres Cordero School in Pembroke earlier this year.

OptiMusic is one of the most creative recent additions to the areas of education and rehabilitation. The device is operated by the children who can play music by interacting with coloured light beams. Any movement within the beams triggers a sound. OptiMusic has proved an excellent tool in stimulating the senses of children and the fact that it so accessible means that all special needs children can make use of it.

“OptiMusic has been a great benefit to the children attending the special schools in Sannat and Pembroke. From today, the

children attending Dun Manwel Attard School in Wardija will also start to make use of this impressive technology which is so beneficial in helping to stimulate the senses of these children,” said HSBC Cares For Children Fund chairman Mrs Catherine Gonzi.

OptiMusic provides a therapeutic environment that has widespread applications for all professionals and carers in the health and rehabilitation sector. These range from gross and fine motor skill development to

communication building and the nurturing of a positive self-image. With this device, children will be given the opportunity to learn to interact with their surroundings and develop skills that will improve their quality of life.

“The Vodafone Malta Found-ation has once again teamed up with the HSBC Cares For Children Fund in order to cover the costs of purchasing and installing this OptiMusic device for the Dun Manwel Attard school. Based on one of Vodafone’s core values, Passion for the World Around Us, which is about caring and commitment, the foundation will continue to help children suffering from disabilities as well as their carers in order to improve their quality of life,” said foundation chairman Gemma Mifsud Bonnici.

Mrs Gonzi, together with Mrs Mifsud Bonnici, presented the new device to head of school William Vassallo. “The school’s mission is to create a caring,

stimulating working environment for all, where pupils receive their entitlement to an education which yields a better quality of life. The OptiMusic device will play a very important part in this process and we are very grateful to the HSBC Cares For Children Fund and the Vodafone Malta Foundation for their assistance,” said Mr Vassallo.

As only minimal movement is needed to play the light beams on OptiMusic, it is just as easy for those with physical as well as sensory disabilities to fully participate. The highly visual colour beams can be easily triggered to produce notes, chord sequences and samples of any instrument – from a harp to a drum beat, from the voices of the jungle to the waves of the sea.

This is the second important piece of equipment at the Dun Manwel Attard school which the HSBC Cares for Children Fund has contributed to. In January 2003, the fund donated a new hydrotherapy pool, which is used to help the children at the school in terms of their physical well-being.

All the pupils who attend the school have severe learning difficulties, mainly due to brain damage suffered before, during or after birth. Most of the students at the school require special assistance with feeding, personal hygiene and mobility and most are also in need of medical assistance on the school premises.