Singing, Laughing, and Napping: Foster Care Babies Making Music in Brazil

After years of working as teachers in a private music school in Curitiba, southern Brazil, we created a project in 2016 involving babies in foster care homes. Amongst dozens of foster care homes, Lar Dona Vera is one in the city of Curitiba that shelters about 20 children, aged 0 to 9, who are taken away from their families due to reports of domestic violence and abuse. These children live at Lar Dona Vera while they wait to be reunited with their biological families or until they are directed toward adoption (LAR, 2018). In the last 2 years, this institution, especially the unit that shelters babies aged 0 to 2, has been involved in a project with the music school Alecrim Dourado Formação Musical, where a group of six to eight babies go every Friday morning to participate in musical activities.