December 01, 2007

Adults my have made a mess of Pakistan and lost focus on what our priorities should be in order to truly make our country an Asian Tiger, but our future generations sure know how to put their beloved homeland back on track. That was evident from the presentations that were put up recently by school children to celebrate Universal Children’s Day.

Organised by the Children’s Museum for Peace and Human Rights (CMPHR) a remarkable multimedia theatre show titled ‘We have the power’ was held for two days with a wide cross-section of schools participating.

Using different genres of communication including short plays, poetry, prose readings, dance, films and songs the students effectively conveyed their concerns about various issues including the growing violence and insecurity in the city; pollution; global warming; environmental degradation and the horrors of nuclear warfare.

It was truly heartening to note that it was not just children of privileged schools that had given thought to such issues and put in effort to present them in a creative manner. Among the 13 schools that had performed in the show were ABSA School for the Deaf, Rukshinda Public School (Orangi) and The Citizen’s Foundation School (Pitiabad).

Their performances were in no way inferior to that of their more privileged counterparts, and since a bare minimum of props was used by all, there was uniformity in the quality of productions.

The two-day event was part of CMPHR’s campaign on the theme ‘We have the power’ in which children have been actively working against apathy, and for social awareness. Maybe our kids will manage to do what the adults have so far failed to achieve and bring about a radical improvement in our society and environment. Here’s to the future generation!