KARACHI: Kids having fun at the beach, a group of people flying kites, overweight youngsters gorging on junk food, and sons helping their mothers in the kitchen were some of the themes explored in ‘Good health is the key to happiness’, the third schoolchildren’s painting exhibition and prize distribution organised by the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplant (SIUT) on Saturday.

The brainchild of the late educationist Anita Ghulam Ali and director of the SIUT Dr Adibul Hasan Rizvi, the exhibition had 650 paintings on display submitted by schoolchildren aged between six and 16. A panel of judges comprising Anwar Maqsood, Niilofer Farrukh and Rumana Hussain selected the prizewinners.

In the age group six to nine years, under the theme ‘Take time to smell the roses’, the winners were: Wania Sohail of the City School (first prize), Ahsan Raza of the Ghulaman-i-Abbas School (second prize) and Hammaz Haider of the Ghulaman-i-Abbas School (third prize). Under the same group but a different theme, ‘My mother is the most beautiful person I have seen’, the winners were Ramsha Shamnani of the Falconhouse Grammar School and Aysha Rehan Siddique of The City School.

Boys dominated the themes ‘Play and have fun’ and ‘A picnic I enjoyed’ where they scooped the maximum prizes. Ahmed Mohiuddin of BVS Parsi High School, Aiman Rizvi of Shahwilayat Public School and Ali Haider of Ghulaman-i-Abbas School were winners in the ‘Play and have fun’ category. Abdullah Muhiuddin of The City School, Abdul Haseeb of BVS Parsi High School and Umar Amir of the The City School were winners in the ‘A picnic I enjoyed’ category.

Friends are flowers in life’s garden, cheerfulness promotes health, be kind to all especially the old and sick and run a bit to be fit were the themes for schoolchildren in the 10 to 12 years age group. The excited parents of Misbah Khan of the Habib Girls School were super excited when their daughter won the first prize in the ‘Cheerfulness promotes health category’. “It is an honour for us that our child’s painting was judged by no less a personality than Anwar Maqsood and that she was awarded the first prize,” said Ms Khan. Talking about her child’s artwork, she said: “When one looks at it, it comes across as very simple with two girls, a tree in the corner and birds chirping. Perhaps the judges were able to understand the philosophy that my daughter was trying to convey through her painting.” Her happiness knew no bounds as she also commented on the second prizewinner in the same category which was awarded to Marium Bano of Mama Parsi Girls School. “Her painting of a park in which children are feeding ducks, people are flying kites and a girl is walking her dog is quite well drawn.”

The following are the winners in the ‘Friends are flowers in life’s garden’ category: Mubarka Ali Asghar of Dawood Public School, Kainat Zehra of Ladybird Grammar School and Maham Shamim of Brilliant Career Secondary School. The winners in the ‘Be kind to all especially the old and sick’ category are Azhan Ali of Habib Public School, Amir Hassan of Ghulaman-i-Abbas School and Mohammad Farzan Sohail of BVS Parsi High School. The winners in the ‘Run a bit to be fit’ category are: Isma Zahid of Brilliant Career Secondary School and Hasna Ali Qadri of The City School.

Students aged 13 to 16 tapped into their cheeky side and created amusing and sarcastic drawings that pertained to themes of weight loss and obesity. The winners of ‘Healthy food is the key to losing weight’ are Fatima Fareed of Dawood Public School, Maria Mudder of Beaconhouse School System and Amina Wali Mohammad of Froebel Education Centre. Iqra Shah of Absa School, Ali Rajput and Kinza Shahzad of Happy Home School were winners in the ‘Eat wrong suffer long eat fresh stay fresh’ category.

Durr-e-Shahwar of Ladybird Grammar School and Bariha Fatima of Sunbeams Grammar School were winners in the ‘Drink clean water and prevent kidney disease’ category. Urooj Adamjee of Dawood Public School, Mahrukh Iqbal of Ladybird Grammar School and Lina Fareed of Dawood Public School were winners in the ‘Organ transplantation gives a new lease of life’ category.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2014