When children are born, parents aspire to provide them with love, care, concern and a healthy lifestyle. It marks the start of a journey full of expectations, promises and dreams.
chatter matter
When children are born, parents aspire to provide them with love, care, concern and a healthy lifestyle. It marks the start of a journey full of expectations, promises and dreams. But what if the parents have different challenges and aspirations than this? What if their kids want more? What if all they want is acceptance in the society and some courage to live with dignity among ‘ordinary’ kids? Here, we are referring to children with special needs who require an inclusive environment to lead a normal life. However, in our part of the world, people tend to ignore this notion.
Society puts a lot of focus on child’s health and wellbeing which is imperative; however, the most important lessons of empathy and acceptance, essential for character building, are usually missed out. Keeping this in mind, Blue Band has launched its campaign ‘Acchai Barhnay Do’ this year with the aim to create a more inclusive environment for kids all over Pakistan. Through this initiative, the brand aims to reinforce the importance of social inclusion for parents/guardians to teach kids the idea of removing barriers for differently-abled kids. Also, an event was organised recently where the brand joined hands with Special Olympics Pakistan and organized the ‘Both Buddy & Me’ race. The race was conducted at Pakistan’s largest inflatable race course where kids were paired up in a buddy system with differently-abled kids to finish the obstacle course together as a team. This helped bring these children closer, whilst reducing barriers for children with special needs through an opportunity to showcase their skills in sports and games.
This is not all! The event, organised by Hasan Rizvi of Bodybeat, was a star-studded one which included many celebrities with their families such as Shahroz and Syra Shahroz, Nida Yasir, Zhalay Sarhadi, Shaista Lodhi, Sunita Marshall & Hassan Ahmed, Aamina Sheikh, Mohib Mirza, YBQ, Faysal Qureshi, Hira & Mani among others. The host of the day was Faizan Haque and amazing performances by Khaled Anam and Asim Azhar just blew everyone away.
On the occasion, Founder Special Olympics Pakistan, Ronak Lakhani, expressed her appreciation and said, “This event has been a step towards spreading awareness. It has helped us celebrate inclusion and spread the goodness. Hence the slogan Achai Barhnay Do connects the purpose.”
We hope that in the future more of such initiatives are taken in order to build a better ‘society for all’. Kudos to the entire team!
