The lockdown was a difficult time for vulnerable youngsters with mental or contextual issues. Music therapist Sofian Dhondt saw them sliding downhill and didn’t want to let this happen. Together with some people from the Apple Garden from the UZ Brussel and with the writer Sharmila Madhvani, he gathered a collective of people from care and art who were “put home” during the pandemic.
They started an online project with young people who suffered from a combination of physical and psychological symptoms and stayed at the KidZ Health Castle before this period. The youngsters searched for the strength in themselves through their own photographs, self-composed music and their life stories. So “Stories – The Story collective.” was born.
“Stories” brought something beautiful to both the participants and the international audience. Because of the beauty of this avalanche effect, we continued with it by bringing other target groups into the picture, for example the children of the Child Trust Center.
2024 will be the year that Stories Unmuted will be released. This time even more striking and powerful…. Portraits of young people who have experienced very bad things. Violence, neglect, abuse. No wailing, no seeking for sensation but their own “stories unmuted” as a proof of their strength and a universal message for the audience: No one is alone.