The two-day competitions entitled ‘Karachi — City of Our Future 2003’, organized by Dawn Young World concluded on Sunday with prizes being given to the winners.
The winners leapt with joy, and their school-fellows cheered, as one after the other the winners walked up to the stage to collect their prizes and medals which were being given away by none other than Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia of their favourite group The Strings. The losers, too, did not go home empty-handed as the organizers had promised a certificate of participation for each participant.
Ten to 17-year-old students from more than 100 schools had taken part in the 10-odd competitions which were held at The City School, PAF Chapter campus. Students showed keen interest in all the contests and put up a tough competition making it difficult for the judges to chose the best.
The competitions were geared towards inspiring and communicating the vision of a better Karachi from its youth. Important among these were ‘Ad art’, ‘Colours of Karachi’, ‘Funkar Fun’ and ‘Kolachi Catwalk’. The competitions involved essay-writing, debating and testing of general knowledge. An inter-school scrabble competition was also held. On the sidelines of the competitions, workshops involving recycling, jewellery-making and the environment were also organized.
The titles of the competitions, age groups, names of the winners and their schools are as follows:
Ad Art: 10-12 years; Edward American School; Asra Mumtaz, Bilal Amjad and Shah Taj. 13-14 years; Karachi Cambridge School; Madiha Ali, Maryam Haroon and Shameem Naz. 15-17 years; Esens Foundation School; Javeria Fatima, Maria Fatima and Madiha Masroor. This competition was adjudged by Irfan Amir, F. Maqsood Hamidi and S. M. Adnan.
Colours of Karachi: 10-12 years; Happy Home School; M. Faisal and Samina Aslam. 13-14 years; Ladybird Grammar School, block N; Rabeeka Aftab and Yusuf Jamil. 15-17 years; Army Public School; Umair Ali and Shaghaf Iqbal. The judges for this competition were Naheed Raza, S. Wania and Sameena Raja.
Compose Karachi: 10-12 years; Mama Parsi School; Zuneira Ahmed. 13-14 years; Beaconlight Academy; Sidra Ghufran. 15-17 years; The City School, Darakhshan Campus; Mehreen Mehmood. The adjudicators were Farida Said, Najma Siddiqui and Ameena Syed.
Funkar Fun: 10-12 years; Edward American School; Mansoor Brohi, Namra Akbar and Shahzeb Khan. 13-14 years; Dhaka Secondary School, Nazimabad; Shehrish Wasim, Faizan Aftab and Yusra Anees. 15-17 years; St. Gregorys High School; Bilal Yousuf, Danish Ali and Farwa Zaidi. The judges were Mubashir Khan, Babar Sheikh, Tapu Javeri and Shanaz Ramzi.
Kolachi Catwalk: 10-12 years; The Toronto School; Shireen Kholani. 13-14 years; Hill Crest School, F. B. Area; Ali Sher Yousuf. 15-17 years; Karachi Cadet School; Amanullah. The adjudicators were Imran Kureishi, Nadya Mistry and Deepak Parwani.
Question Time One: 10-12 years; City School, Gulshan Branch; Wajihuddin Siddiqui and Hermain Kazmi. 13-14 years; Mama Parsi Girls School; Umayma Saleem and Samiyah Moin. 15-17 years, Generations School; S. Kumail Akbar and S. Yasir Husain.
Question Time Two: 10-12 years; Little Folks School; Ambreen and Uzma Tahir. 13-14 years; The Toronto School; Sundus Khowaja and Akbar Azizullah. 15-17 years; Karachi Public School; Hussain Saifuddin and Arif Nawab.
Think Tank: 10-12 years; International School of Studies; Khurram Feroze. 13-14 years; The City School, Gulshan Branch; Asad Ali. 15-17 years; Karachi Public School; Nisha Feroze. The judges were Marjorie Rahman, Rumana Hussain, Stella Jafri, K. Parakh and Meher Cowasjee.
Scrabble: First Position: St. Patricks High School; Asad Raza, Ali Abbas and Qasim Raza. Second Position: St. Michaels Convent; Farhan Raza, Ali Kazi and Shahzeb Khan. Third Position: Lycee Bahadurabad Secondary; Kamran Bari, Saud Javed and Adnan Moquit.
Vision Karachi: The names of the winning schools and names of their projects are:
The City School, Senior Branch, N. Nazimabad; Mai Kolachi project; St. Gregory’s School; Empress Market project; Beaconlight Academy; Seaview project; Central High School; NIPA project; Falconhouse Grammar School; Metropole project; Sunbeam Grammar School; Gora Qabristan project; Karachi Public School; Hinopak project. The adjudicators for this competition were Naheed Mashooqullah, M. Sayem Ghayur, Zain Mankani and Hanif Daud.
The proceedings were conducted by Erum Sattar. Ms Niloufer Patel of the Dawn Group of Newspapers welcomed the guests and extended a vote of thanks. The City School, PAF Chapter, was greatly praised and thanked for providing the venue for the competitions. The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture was thanked for providing the volunteers to help the organizers.
Other organizations mentioned in this regard included the Teachers Resource Centre, Pakistan Scrabble Association and Traffic Police. The secretary of the Forest and Wildlife Department had provided hundreds of saplings which will be distributed among the participating schools. Speaking on the occasion the Principal of The City School, PAF Chapter, Ms Seema Irfan, stated that there should be close cooperation between educational institutions and the media.