About our organisation
A world where every child living with a disability can access the positive power of music!
Mission, history and where we are going…
Our mission is to improve the wellbeing of children living with a disability and promote social inclusion through music programs.
Be Happy Music Club is pioneering the use of music to improve the wellbeing of children with special needs and helping these children reconnect with their communities across Fiji. Be Happy Music Club was established in August 2016 by Founder and Executive Director Andre Comaru and is registered as a charitable organisation in Australia and Fiji.
Andre lived in Fiji in 2016 and it was during this time that he received an invitation to play music for 25 children at the Fiji School for the Blind in Suva, the capital of Fiji. After this magical experience, Andre was inspired to found Be Happy Music Club.
Be Happy Music Club provides quality weekly music sessions, led by local musicians, across five schools for special education. The program currently reaches over 200 children living with disabilities such as physical impairment, visual impairment, deafness and hearing loss, speech and language disorders, Down Syndrome, Autism and Cerebral Palsy.
We are proud to say that Be Happy Music Club is supporting Fiji to achieve the goals outlined in the Fiji Disability Strategy, which in turn supports the achievements of the Pacific Regional Disability Strategy, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
We have seen incredible positive changes in children’s lives since we started Be Happy Music Club. Our short-term goal is to expand the program from five schools to all seventeen schools for special education currently operating in Fiji. Our long-term goal is to expand the program to other countries around the world.
We live our lives knowing that music can positively change the lives of these children, we see it every day and we apply it to everything we do at Be Happy Music Club!
Be Happy Music Club Milestones
- We are the only organisation providing music programs to children living with a disability in Fiji.
- We provide quality weekly music sessions to five schools for special education in Fiji. There is no cost for the schools.
- Our weekly music sessions reach over 200 children living with a disability.
- We work with local Fijian musicians, creating fulfilling and lasting employment opportunities across the region.
- We perform annually at the Opening Ceremony of the National Games for Children Living with a Disability thanks to the invitation from Western Council of Special and Inclusive Educators (Westcosie).
- We have been the official charity of the Byron Bay Guitar Festival in Australia for three consecutive years.
- We collaborated with music education foundation Playing for Change, during the Playing For Change International Day in 2016.
- We expanded the music program to two new schools in 2017 with a grant from the Australian High Commission.
- Registered as a charitable organisation in Australia (2018) and in Fiji (2020).
- Our music program is a part of the curriculum of the Fiji School for the Blind, Suva (capital of Fiji) since 2019.
- We collaborated with UNICEF Pacific and Fijian Teachers Association (FTA) on the “Hand Washing Song” campaign in 2019.