NGO organises project for children on Independence day

Ahmedabad, Aug 13 (UNI) A local voluntary organisation has organised a project, Street Smart, on Independence Day to make the city children friendly.

Addressing mediapersons here today, aProCh project coordinator Kiran Sethi said it is a unique event, where children will take over the role of protagonists of the city and seek expression with the city as a canvas.

She said the organisation has organised the project in partnership and support of National Institute of Design (NID), Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A), the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and the Traffic Police.

Ms Sethi, who is also founder director of Riverside School, said the project aims to make Ahmedabad the first ''child-friendly city'' in the nation. The Law Garden area street in the city will close down for traffic on the evening of Independence day and the children in the age group of 13 years and younger will interact with the state's most eminent artists to convert ordinary garbage bins to extraordinary pieces of art, Hub caps will be into art and then into a sculpture that will adorn the streets of Ahmedabad.

Among other things, Spin Academy will interact with the children to convert the street into a 'stage'. Havmor will make 'eating icecreams' a business experience, Rahul Raj will conduct a magic show, face painting, mehndi tattooing and story telling.

She said the entire programme is organised with the help of sponsors who had provided paints, garbage bins, plastic containers, sound/light and stage, hub caps, T-shirts and Deepak John Mathew, head of the photo department at NID will shoot the portraits of the children for the exhibition. Besides, students of IIM-A and NID will help children relish their childhood during the independence day evening.

The project will then convert into a regular exercise on a monthly basis in other parts of city areas, she added.

UNI