KARACHI, Sept 4: Sindh Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Qamar Mansoor said that the special children were playing a significant role in the society and they needed attention to further build up their capabilities.

He was speaking as chief guest at a prize distribution ceremony of special children at DEWA Academy, held here on Saturday.

The minister said the paintings and posters produced by these children on the theme “Protection of our environment”, was a clear indication of their latent skills and talents.

He also praised their parents who, he said wanted to groom their children to make them a useful entity of the society and scores of them were already playing a commendable role after having been equipped with knowledge.

The minister referred to the joint efforts made by the Board of Intermediate Education and the DEWA Academy in organizing this function and hoped that other educational institutions would also follow the suit and hold similar competitions among special children.

On the occasion he announced that the Sindh Sports Board would fix one day in a week to provide sports and recreational facilities to special children and directed the academy’s management to work out details with his office.

Mr Mansoor pointed out that his department was doing a lot for the awareness and guidance of youth and in future would hold inter-collegiate and inter-varsity programmes and youth festival this year providing abundant sports facilities to them.

He pointed out that when he had taken over the portfolio of Sports and Youth Affairs, its budget stood at Rs15million only but with continuous efforts it had now gone up to Rs80 million so that funding problems were not faced in promoting youth and sports facilities.

Earlier the chairman of BISE, Iftekhar Hussain Zaidi and others also spoke.

On the occasion, the minister distributed prizes among the winners of the poster and painting competition.

In the posters competition Aifa of the School of Deaf and Dumb secured first position while second, third and fourth positions went to Mohammed Suleman, Ahmed Saleem and Saima Sohail of the DEWA Academy.

In the painting competition the first three positions were bagged by special children of Al-Saba School while Farheen of Deaf and Dumb School won the special prize.— APP