Lok Virsa, FDE hold first ‘Children Lok Mela’

Islamabad :The National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) on Tuesday started a new programme series on 'Children Lok Mela' under the popular slogan 'Harnessing Culture with Education' in collaboration with the Training Wing of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE).

The first Children Lok Mela was held on the premises of Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG), I-9/1, which featured a number of colourful activities including artisans-at-work, live folk musical performances by artists and traditional drummers (dholis), traditional food stalls, traditional horse dance and many other attractions.

FDE Director General Hasnat Qureshi and Lok Virsa Executive Director Dr. Fouzia Saeed were the special guests at the opening ceremony of the Mela. In his address, FDE DG Hasnat Qureshi highly commended the efforts of Lok Virsa and Dr. Fouzia Saeed for infusing a new spirit in their students about the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan. He assured full cooperation from his department for the successful implementation of this programme series.

ED Lok Virsa said her institution was working for the last two years in close collaboration with the FDE to inculcate knowledge in children about various facets of Pakistani culture, particularly folk crafts and that their response was worth mentioning. She also thanked the FDE Training Wing for their unstinted support in this project.

The Lok Virsa ED further added that her organisation had launched a one-year programme series in the name of “Craft is Knowledge” on September 18. It aims at perpetuating traditional skills, promoting master artisans and above all, creating awareness among children (age group: 7-16 years) about folk crafts.

Under this initiative, ten training programmes will be organised focusing on popular crafts like truck art, papier-mâché, pottery, doll making, traditional weaving, stone carving, etc. Each programme will be held for five days at Heritage Museum and master artisans in the respective craft field will demonstrate their work and provide hands on training to children. The first programme under this series, i.e. ‘Truck Art: Engagement with Artisans’ has already started at Lok Virsa which will continue till Friday (September 22).

An important component of the ‘Craft is Knowledge’ programme series is the ‘Children Lok Mela’ which has an objective to mobilize educational institutions about the importance of the traditional culture.

The one-year monthly programme on ‘Craft is Knowledge’ followed by ‘Children Lok Mela’ at a local FDE school will conclude in June 2018. Around two thousand students from various FDE schools participated in the Children Lok Mela held at IMCG, I-9/1 and enjoyed the activities presented on the occasion.

The opening ceremony featured popular national songs and poetry of Allama Iqbal, folk songs, folk dances and cultural diversity shows, all presented by children attired in colourful traditional costumes. Lok Virsa dance group presented famous `Bhangra’ folk dance. The audience enjoyed thrilling performances of the child folk artists a lot.