Lyari children's health festival held

The Lyari Children's Health and Hygiene Festival witnessed the active participation of children in interactive and creative activities like hand washing activity, reciting slogan of Lifebuoy "Paanch ka pahara", learning how to make pottery, penning their creative thoughts in the form of a story through a story writing session and enjoying a magic show.
The festival was organised by Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA) in collaboration with Unilever Pakistan Limited (UPL) at Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai auditorium here on Thursday, and it was participated by scores of schoolchildren, their parents and teachers. The event also witnessed the interaction of the chief guest of the occasion, Mansoob Ahmed Siddiqui, Director Private Schools with the schoolchildren who were gaily participating in the ongoing activities. Unilever's Lifebuoy team was also present on the occasion.
The aim of all these activities was to enable children to get an opportunity to stake out their own paths and understand their cultures and traditions better, said Ahsan Rizvi, programme co-ordinator, at the Lyari children's Health and Hygiene Festival. He was of the view that every person has the desire to be clean, energetic and healthy. He said in collaboration with Unilever (UPL), we have contributed in bringing a healthy and the lives of 700,000 children in 2,500 schools on a single platform in the year 2011 "We at Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA) firmly believe in enhancing children's lives through the medium of education, health and governance", Ahsan said.
He informed that ITA is promoting education through numerous initiatives across Pakistan and in collaboration with Unilever's Lifebuoy QTA has been promoting the message of health and hygiene in schools through various educational and interactive means since 2010.
Athsan A. Razzak, Acting Regional Manager, ITA stated towards the culmination of the event that educating a child on the importance of health and hygiene ensures that his/her entire families have understood the message of staying clean, healthy, happy and fit throughout their lives
He said that ITA has been a key partner of UPL since 2010 in promoting their health and hygiene programme. Apart from actively working in this cause, ITA has also trained 1,300 teachers for Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Pakistan under the Surf Excel Programme.
Sharing the details of various projects of ITA, Durray Sadaf of ITA noted that ITA has been addressing the issue of child labour in the country through various programmes.
She said that these programmes have been supported by various international donor agencies. "We have reached out to more than 25,000 children in several districts. Sheikhupura, Kasur, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad through non-formal, catch up, functional literacy, vocational and formal programmes", Sadaf underscored.
She mentioned that Idara-e-Taleem-O-Aagahi (ITA) - was registered in 2000 as a response to the profound education crisis in the country. Since its inception, ITA's main focus is education reform of public sector schools which are in a state of decay and degeneration.