Less privileged children enthralled by performances at concert

Over 4,000 children from the less privileged areas of the city as well as some special children packed into the PAF Museum on a balmy winter morning on Thursday, seating themselves on the lush lawns and in a really joyful mood.

The museum lawns were the venue of a children’s benefit concert, held by the FESF (Family Educational Services Foundation), in collaboration with the special education department of the Sindh government, and sponsored by an international fast food chain.

It was delightful to see the children, especially the ones different from the mainstream children, lumbered with hearing or mental disabilities enjoying the day. It was an absolute carnival for them. The children were the “VIPs” and all the programmes were focused on catering to their choice. To begin with, the drama troupe, Zahrsss, performed musical skits which were a satire on the state of the civic services and the rot taking place in society and to wake the children up to these dilemmas. Through very comical plots, they brought home to the children the urgent need for bringing about a change in our national behaviour especially as regards the environment and toxic water that citizens were being condemned to consume.

Television host Faizan Haqee compered the three-hour programme, most adroitly with his characteristic humour and witticisms, which sent the children into peels of laughter. This was followed by the by a performance by the pop group which is a rage these days, Fuzon, with their lead vocalist, Khurram, rendering songs in Sindhi, Urdu and Pashto. It was wonderful to see the children, including the special ones, dancing to the tunes. Two small mentally-challenged children were constantly hopping in rhythm to the beat of the songs, complete with those winsome childhood smiles, radiating joy.

A group of small Pakhtun girls danced to a Pashto folk song being rendered by Khurram. What was totally absent was inhibitions and children danced to the beat of the songs in the most enthusiastic, uninhibited manner. It must have been the happiest day of many of the children’s lives.

Then came the performance by renowned Sindhi folk singer Shazia Khushik. She started off with the famous Sindhi Sufi song, “Dama Dam Mast Qalandar”, and scores of children and others went on to the stage and danced to the tune. The next numbers she rendered were “Sindhi Topi Ajrak” and “Ho Jamalo”. Both these numbers elicited a warm response from the children who danced with all the fun and frolic.

The programme was an ideal form of inclusion, whereby children who were differently-abled were included among the mainstream children. Thus, it provided a wonderful opportunity to children marginalised by the disabilities foisted on them by fate for no fault of theirs to be bracketed with mainstream children, if even just for a day.

Sindh Education Minister Mehtab Dahar, who was substituting for Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah as chief guest who, reportedly, could not come because of an emergency in the family, lauded the fact that the marginalised segment of our society had been made inclusive. “This creates a sense of belonging to the unfortunate and I congratulate the FESF and the Special Education Department of the Sindh government for holding such a wonderful event.”

He pointed out that it was for the first time that the provincial government had been involved in holding a programme for special children. Richard Geary, CEO of the FEFS, said, “The KFC has made inclusion a reality as 125 deaf children are employed at KFC outlets.”

Raza Pirbhai of KFC said, “KFC feels that alongside business, we have to work for the betterment of society.” The PAF had contributed to the event in the form of their expansive lush awn which they had made available.