A two-day Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) commenced on Friday at the Pak-China Friendship Centre to promote reading, creativity and critical thinking amongst children. It is being organised by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) and Oxford University Press (OUP) in collaboration with the Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI).
This free public event would continue from 9 30 am to 6 00 pm till
Saturday.
The festival’s first day featured talks, interactive readings, discussions and workshops by renowned children’s authors and poets. It would also include creative writing, bookmaking, poetry, comics, book reviewing sessions and book launches, book fairs, children’s theatre, cartoons and puppet shows.
Children and educators from all over the country attended the moot attended and leading literary figures, writers, artists, singers and representatives of various education related organisations attended.
Before coming to the capital, the CLF, co-founded by Baela Raza Jamil of Idara-a-Taleem-o-Agahi and Ameena Saiyid of Oxford University Press started from Lahore in 2011. In the last twelve months, CLF held successful events in Quetta, Peshawar, Bahawalpur and Karachi with over 80,000 children and adults in attendance.
It is a pioneering project, an equalizer for all school systems to address the challenges of learning, reviving a reading culture and generating content for the curriculum.