Plea to Colombian president over plight of street children (From Watford Observer)

Composer meeting Colombian president in bid to help country's street children

4:10pm Monday 22nd October 2012 in News By Ben Endley, Senior reporter

A composer from Chorleywood is to fly to Colombia next month to meet with President Juan Manuel Santos and call for more to be done to help children who have been made homeless by 50 years of conflict in the country.

Next month's visit of Vartan Melkonian, patron of Consortium for Street Children and ambassador to the United Nations for street children, comes in the wake of historic peace talks between the government and left-wing Farc revolutionaries which began last week in Oslo.

Mr Melkonian, of Chenies Village, who himself roamed the streets of Lebanon following the death of his Armenian mother, fled to Britain in 1972 and became an accomplished composer.

He will also conduct the Colombian National Symphony Orchestra on November 25 in Bogotà.