13 year old Paul was a quiet boy and we were surprised to hear that he was known as a bully at school. We always found him polite and rather quiet, but we did notice that he was not popular with his peers. One day when we took the bus to his village for our usual youth session, one of the workers asked him to help her set up the new Karaoke machine we had just bought. This led to her asking him to sing along with her. During this experience, she could not believe what a fantastic voice the young man had and asked him more about where he had learnt to sing. He replied that he had not ever had lessons and that he wasn't even in the school choir. She couldn't understand how this had not been noticed by anyone else. During our summer festival we decided to bring in a voice coach who helped the young people record CD's. She too noticed the young man and he was asked to perform at the end of the festival. We noticed as a result of this positive interaction that Paul had become more confident. He was becoming more popular and over the weeks he showed more and more interest in music and has now formed a band with his friends. More importantly Paul is now a popular young man, attending college and enjoying life, with a positive future ahead of him.

*Names have been changed for reasons of confidentiality