Children Literature Festival (CLF) enthrals thousands of children on its first day at Lok Virsa with a large number of renowned writers, authors, poets and creative artists marked their presence by featuring their skills and craftsmanship in different interactive and packed sessions. Canadian High Commissioner Heather Cruden along with leading scholars, writers, poets and artists inaugurated the festival on Friday.
Cruden while addressing the opening ceremony shared her amusement on being part of such a large scale event dedicated to children especially. Talking about future, she said that we can secure our future only by investing in our children and activities like CLF are the greatest ways to bring our children close to not only our own culture but the global practices and values.
CLF founder Baela Raza Jamil welcomed all the guests and shared the brief history of CLF and its making. She mentioned that CLF has become a tradition and in future it would be top export of Pakistan to rest of the world.
The inauguration ceremony was followed by day long activities including Performance of Folk Artists facilitated by Lok Virsa, To discuss the nature of Curriculum a special session “ Curriculum of Peace or hate” was moderated by Munizeh Jahangir while Tahira Abdullah, Peter Jacob, Sameena Imtiaz, Baela Raza Jamil participated in the discussion. In a session “Article 25 – A: Right to Education – From Access to Quality Learning for All”, panelists including Nargis Sultana, Zubeida Mustafa, Mosharraf Zaidi, Haroona Jatoi, Dr. Faisal Bari shared their thoughts while A theatre performance “ KlaMotte” wwas presented by Goethe Institute.
CLF Magazine’s 10th edition Uran Tashtaree was also launched by Editor Amra Alam in a discussion with famous actress Laila Zuberi. Many book launches were also held including the launch of “Tasveeri Kahani Silsila”, by Rumana Husain while discussed by Zubeida Mustafa.
CLF would be finishing today (Saturday) highlighting many more creative and instrumental activities and performances in many interactive sessions and especially designed programs.