November 22, 2008	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 21: Dedicated to the spirit of peace, love and hope, the colourful programme held on Friday in the Arts Council auditorium in connection with the Universal Children’s Day was truly a children’s show where children, both as performers and as the audience, displayed their talent.

Organised by the Children’s Museum for Peace and Human Rights (CMPHR), the show consisted of short plays, poetry and prose readings, dance, songs, skits and short films. More than 100 children from 11 schools participated in the programme. It was part of the CMPHR campaign on the theme, “They made a difference… so can we!” aimed at informing children about the achievements of rights activists, whose struggle for peace and the rule of law brought about a significant change in society.

Starting off with a short play focused on “patriotism”, students recited poems on child labour and the Universal Children’s Day. Through their performance, they highlighted the need for giving children enough love so that they could utilise their potential in a constructive manner and prove themselves useful citizens.

While performance of the students was outstanding, the striking feature of the show was the diversity of the issues touched upon, including street children, global warming, impact of war and violence against children, poverty, hunger and religious tolerance. The icing on the cake, indeed, was the enthusiasm displayed by performers and the audience. Recitals of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s ‘Ham dekhain ge’ and Sahir Ludhianvi’s ‘Ae shareef insano’, performed by students of PECHS and Nasra schools respectively, along with a classical dance performance by a student of Froebel Education Centre, received great applause.

Enacted by as many as 28 students of AMI School, ‘Triangles are bad’ conveyed an important message of educating children about the joys in diversity.