Seeds of Peace drama festival brings youth closer

Seeds of Peace held its 3rd Annual Inter School Dramatics Festival, 2011 at Ali Institute of Education, Lahore in which 11 teams from various schools of Lahore (government, semi-government and private schools) participated in the competition, creating a unique pool of students that are not usually introduced to each other at events, encouraging them to understand the diversity that exists within our own community. The schools taking part in the festival included two branches each of Divisional Public School (DPS), Salamat School System and The Trust School. Beaconhouse School System, Garden Town and Lahore Grammar School (LGS) Boys Johar Town also performed at the event. The girls from the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Sacred Heart Convent and Government Comprehensive School Wahdat Road also participated in the festival.
Each team performed a 10-minute skit on the theme “Imperfection: Man’s Greatest Beauty.” Hundreds from the audiences applauded the young students of grade 8-10 for their wonderful performances. The students took various issues plaguing society, such as disability, the hopelessness and its solution, extremism and its after effects, etc., and presented their view of imperfection as Man’s beauty. PTV Senior Producer Hafeez Tahir and freelance film and video consultant Samana Zeeshan judged the performances and decided the winners.
The Drama Festival was won by The Trust School Thokar Niaz Baig, whereas LGS Boys Johar Town and Salamat School System for Boys were first and second runner-up respectively. The best male performance trophy was given to Ali Nizam-ud-Din from The Trust School, Thokar Niaz Baig, whereas Izba Batool from DPS Girls was chosen as the best female performer. Lahore US Consulate Public Affairs Officer Jennifer A Larson gave away the prizes. Sajjad Ahmad, President Seeds of Peace thanked chief guest, students and their parents as well as the school administration for supporting the event. He emphasized on the fact that it was extremely important to provide positive opportunities to our youth for expression of their talent. The current drama will make the participants to think that we are human beings and God loves our being imperfect. The drama management team included Jazib Ali, Jehanzeib Shoaib, Amina Ali Khan, Saleha Aziz, Haiqa Sadaqat, Qurat-ul-Ain, Sana Kamran, Usama Amir, Jasir Shahbaz and other seed graduates.
Seeds of Peace is a non-profit, non-religious and non-political organisation dedicated to preparing teenagers from areas of conflict with the leadership skills required to promote coexistence and peace. The organisation, at its international summer camp brings together children from several countries to the shores of Lake Pleasant in Maine, USA. There, the youth interacts with other youngsters from all over the world, and particularly with their respective ‘conflict neighbours’, where many issues and misunderstandings are brought to light and discussed. To ensure sustained participation and dedication to the cause, follow-up programmes are conducted year-round for Seeds of Peace graduates in their home countries, including various competitions, mini-camps, speaker series, home-stay program, leadership workshops and community work. The current drama competition is a part of the follow-up program.