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Bahraini singer and adventurer Mo Zowayed is using his music in a bid to help educate the impoverished women of Nepal, a country he holds near and dear to his heart.
The 27-year-old charity champion and instrumentalist, from Sanad, was inspired by the beauty and the people of the earthquake-hit nation and his musical mission was recently highlighted by a fan on GulfWeekly’s letters page.
Now back from his latest trek to the country, he said: “I found inspiration in Nepal in a way that I’ve never before experienced. It made me determined to do something to help.”
He has started donating the proceeds to his songs to a Canadian-run charity called Women’s Education and Literacy in Nepal (WELNepal) that has helped more than 5,000 women by providing them with basic reading and writing skills in literacy classes.
“Education helps them make better choices. To be able to read and write gives them freedom and the chance to escape a cycle of poverty that entraps so many of them,” he said.
Mo first visited the country, often described as the Switzerland of Asia, 12 months ago with friends and was taken aback by its snow-white Himalayan Mountains and its awe-inspiring scenery … but its people made an even bigger impression.
He stayed with what he described as a ‘sweet and welcoming’ family. While daydreaming in his room, inspiration struck and the concept of using his music to help the people of Nepal started to form.
The former Ibn Khuldoon National School student, who can play a range of instruments including the mandolin, banjo, trumpet, ukulele, harmonica and guitar, said: “The idea for a song came about during my first visit to Nepal.
“My friends and I decided to do things a little differently from a usual holiday experience so we stayed with a family and it was the best thing ever.”
He spent three weeks in the remote village of Begnas which is located beside a lake with views out across the mountains. He discovered that Ram, his host, had worked for eight years in Saudi Arabia as a truck driver to earn enough money to educate his children and convert his home into a modest homestay for travellers.
Mo said: “When I was settling into my room at Ram’s house, I couldn’t help but notice a clothesline outside my window.
“Ants were hurrying along it, some carrying food and some just walking along. I sat back on my bed and watched them for ages. I then picked up my guitar and a song came to me instantly.
“The message and the simplicity of it were so clear. It was in their simple home that I wrote ‘Hardly Hanging On’. Together with my photographer friend, Jody Peck, we filmed the ants as they struggled along; some collecting food, others just going about their ant-lives.
“The idea to use the song for a good cause came about after the video was edited and the song recorded and mixed. I was watching the video and thought ‘wouldn’t it be amazing for this to somehow help Nepal, the country that gave me this inspiration and opened its arms to me in the most beautiful way’.
“The Nepalese we met were so generous yet many arrive in the Middle East to provide for their families and they are sometimes treated like second-class citizens. They’re our guests; however, some people show them absolutely no respect.”
Mo decided to donate the proceeds of his song along with a couple of other popular numbers to the charity.
WELNepal was formed by Toronto photographer David Walton after he met a woman in Nepal who needed help writing a letter appealing for $100 to a donor to continue a literacy course she was running for local women. David told her he would be more than happy to donate to her class and the project expanded over time.
David, founder and president, said: “I also fell in love with the warmth and generosity of the Nepali people. My aim was to help villagers better their lives. In 1997, I began working as a volunteer teacher of English in village schools and establishing libraries there.
“I quickly realised that the situation of rural Nepali women was a very difficult one. They were required not only to perform all housekeeping and child-raising duties, but also to do the backbreaking work of wood-gathering, water-collecting, field cultivation and harvesting.”
“Funding literacy classes has been my most fulfilling and important undertaking. Through these classes, young women who were initially too timid to look at me have transformed themselves into proud, confident people.”
Now, WELNepal funds literacy classes run by women for women. They provide libraries, as well as lectures on women’s health, wellness, rights and empowerment. They also provide lectures on ecology and new farming methods and also help women form income-generating projects so that they can support themselves and their families once their literacy training is complete.
David added: “WELNepal was not created to convince Nepali women that their country or culture is inferior. It was created to give women the choice to obtain an education. It has given women the resources to learn, and to take from their learning what they will and apply it, if they choose, to their own lives and culture. The goal is not intellectual colonisation. The goal is empowerment.”
Mo recently returned to Nepal and stayed with the same family, giving children guitar lessons and teaching them to play chess. He also visited a literacy class with his girlfriend, Sally Bosson, and added: “It was so inspiring to see how the women are empowered.”
Mo has already raised around BD200. The song and mini-album is available for sale on his website, www.mozowayed.com and he has grouped Hardly Hanging On with three other recordings of travel-inspired songs for the cause.
Mo has also recently finished recording his debut album. He and the band, The Accidentals, will shortly tour the region to promote it.
He said: “We are all living in this world together. Middle Easterners, Central Asians, and red ants all share one goal: we’re hanging on, and trying to get by.”
Find out more about the song, the album and the tour on www.mozowayed.com
