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The Veolia Environment Foundation has made a grant to the Toulouse les Orgues Association to help expand the NGO’s music appreciation project designed to help children with psychiatric problems in hospital wards in the Midi-Pyrénées region in France.

The Toulouse les Orgues Association conducts organ promotion projects with the public at large and also runs the annual Toulouse festival dedicated to the instrument. Marginalized by incessant visits to hospitals or specialized establishments, some children find it extremely difficult to cultivate relationships. They are usually prohibited from going to school or attending cultural events. To remedy these difficulties, the association has decided to act in a hospital environment.

For the past years, a team from the NGO has been running workshops in the children’s psychiatric ward of the Grave Hospital in Toulouse. The workshops, attended by children aged from 7 to 12, have been very popular both with the children and with the care staff. Miniature organs have also been designed and built for easy transport in the hospital. The grant from the Veolia Foundation has enabled a hundred children to benefit from this programme over a period of three years, and will help the NGO to build another 6 miniature organs.