Members of Leng Community, a South London based group that reaches out to people in the community at risk of isolation, saw the power of music in action when they gifted residents at a care home in Sydenham with MP3 players.
The team of young adults visited Westwood House, run by Barchester Healthcare, before Christmas to give out 23 MP3 players, ready-loaded with some memorable tracks from the 40s, 50s and 60s and soft headphones for ease of use.
You can watch the recipients’ reactions to receiving the MP3s in this video: https://twitter.com/Barchester_care/status/814057274616541185
The headphones were distributed to residents, many of whom are living with dementia. All MP3s came with plenty of storage space and a USB for their families to take home and upload songs of their choice.
Leng Community is a charity based in South London that seeks to reach out to communities in London that are often overlooked in today’s society. Led by Micah Adams, Mel Adams and Dean Leander, the charity first launched the campaign #ParcelOfHope to support the homeless in London and then went on to launch #LengCommunityMP3 more recently.
Westwood House Care Home is a purpose built care home located in the residential area of Upper Sydenham on Westwood Hill. The home provides nursing, residential and dementia care services.
Melissa Adams of Leng Community says, “It was so nice to see them enjoying the music and watching one resident in particular playing the piano with her hands was quite emotional. Her daughter then told me her mother used to play the piano when she was a child so the music must have jogged her memory.”
Micah Adams of Leng Community says, “My wife and I are passionate about helping communities that we feel are often ignored. Honestly I think I got more from it than they did, speaking to them was great and we forget they were once young and have a great story to tell, can still be funny, still tell jokes and still have fun.”
