– courtesy of The Tina Insanally Foundation
THE Tina Insanally Foundation Bosco Steel Orchestra is being housed today in a spanking new band room, which was opened on May 21, 2012 at the St. John Bosco Orphanage in Plaisance, on the East Coast of Demerara in Guyana. The Foundation was established in memory of the youngest Insanally daughter, Tina, who passed away in May 2010 after a brief illness.
Father Malcolm Rodrigues blessed the band room and sprinkled holy water on the steelpans and the room prior to the start of the formalities.  According to Fr. Rodrigues, the band room was a dedication to Tina, who loved and lived music.
Director of Bosco, Sister Judy, said that a steelband was a dream they thought would never materialize because of more pressing priorities.  However, six years ago, a donation from an anonymous donor concretized the dream; and with acquisition of drums from DDL, the Bosco Steel Orchestra was established.
Colgrain Whyte, who made the original pans, volunteered to teach the boys, and has continued doing so until today.
According to Sister Judy, the boys truly enjoy playing the drums, and it also inculcates into them “…discipline and a sense of team spirit, because each band member is important in producing this wonderful music.”  She said one of the great things that the orchestra has achieved is that it has given the boys an opportunity and a place to creatively express very difficult and painful emotions. She said, “I have seen an angry or hurt child transformed after playing in the band for a few months.”
But the instruments had no proper housing, nor did the boys have an adequate practice area for years. Bandleader Whyte said that although this did not dampen their enthusiasm, the boys sometimes had to practise while standing in mud after a rainfall, and the former band-room was so small that it was difficult to manoeuvre in comfort.
But then the Insanally family, whose association with Bosco dates back to nearly a quarter of a century, decided to use their departed daughter’s college refunds to make some new pans and construct a new and better-equipped band-room.
Sister Judy said that the Insanallys did not merely want to sponsor the band, but wanted a partnership; and in thanking the Insanallys for creating the TIF Bosco Steel Orchestra, Sr. Judy said, “Mr. and Mrs. Insanally, I thank you for your support and your contribution in providing new pans and the band-room, along with other facilities.  Most of all, I thank you for always being there for the boys. Time and again, I am astounded and deeply moved by your generosity.  As a family, you have been the face of God’s Mercy to the boys and me. Today is another day when we are reminded that dreams are possible, and it is important to continue to hope.”
Vic Insanally said the band was intended to create career musicians, so that when the boys move on from the orphanage, they may have a career in music.
He alluded to the annual TIF concerts at the Theatre Guild, where the boys have opened the concert with their steel-band renditions, saying that the boys were always punctual, well-disciplined, impeccably dressed, and that their music was always well-received by the audience.
Mr. Insanally promised that TIF is partnering with the band for the long haul.
A junior group entertained the invitees with a rendition of the classic “My grandfather’s clock”, before the plaque was unveiled by Sister Mirabilis, following which Bishop Francis spoke.
The Bishop said that the teamwork of the boys can teach lessons to politicians, and he drew a parallel where old, rejected drums, when salvaged and with some attention, make sublime music; likewise, human beings who have been cast down for some reason or another, could be rescued and resituated so that they can one day achieve their ultimate potential to be the best they can be, emerging and evolving, as the old drums have done, into perfection.
He said the coming together of peoples, as happens at Bosco, could be replicated everywhere, because the lessons learnt there could be a beacon for others.
The senior group delighted the invitees with a medley of folk songs, before the ribbon was cut by the youngest member of the orphanage, five-year-old Kumar.
For in excess of three decades, Sister Mary Noel Menezes, a Sister of Mercy, has nurtured the bereft boys at the St. John Bosco Orphanage (Bosco Orphanage) with the assistance of Sister Celine Marie Kirsch.
St The St. John Bosco Orphanage and Convent is located in the Demerara East Coast village of Plaisance, and provides a home where love and care are showered upon boys, most so scarred that they need more than is normal of these commodities to once more learn to trust another human being.
But the happy sounds of boys at play in a family of a different dispensation than the normal is testimony to the great heart of many who contribute in a continuum of giving that most often lasts all of their lifetimes.
The boys, who are often abandoned at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), can be admitted from the age of three, and can stay until they are 16 years old. When no one turns up to collect them from the hospital, they are then taken to the Red Cross Home in D’Urban Backlands, Georgetown, where they are cared for until they are three years old, after which the orphanage can admit them. From age 16 to 21, the boys are accommodated at the `Mercy Home’ in Prashad Nagar.
Love, care and discipline are expended in equal measure to shape responsible and rounded personalities; and many times, when the boys achieve success in their adult lives, they return to provide help to the only home and family they have ever known.
Sr. Menezes said the love that they shower on the boys is returned many times over; and the appreciation of the boys is expressed in many ways, especially on Mother’s Day, when they receive hand-made cards and other tokens of affection from the boys.
At a time when survival was difficult, Italian Jesuit priest Father Luigi Casati, in 1879, gathered together a number of homeless boys he saw running around the streets of Plaisance. That was the genesis of the St. John Bosco Orphanage.
A blurb on the orphanage states: The word “Orphanage” in regard to St. John’s is probably a misnomer. Fr. Casati’s original idea was to get the boys off the streets – suggesting they were “homeless” but not necessarily orphans in the strict sense of the word.
Today, the accent is on the care of “poor, neglected boys”. A sociological study made a few years ago by Rosaliene Fung indicated that the majority of boys were not orphans.