With colourful streamers adorning the Garcia de Orta garden from all sides, the Samba Square wears a happy look as it gets set to host the fourth edition of the People's carnaval from February 6 to 9. And once again there's something special in store for children too as Nirmala Institute of Education and Bookworm Library have lined up a host of fun activities for kids of all age groups.
However, this time around they are planning on creating a more inclusive creative environment with special assistance and attention for children with special needs.
“ This event will be handled entirely by the students of Nirmala Institute of Education as part of their teacher's training programme. Some of the activities planned include face painting, jewellery making, nail art etc and all these will be made using recycled materials in keeping with the theme of Environment and Wildlife Protection,” says Gayathri Rao Konkar, consultant, Nirmala Institute of Education. “ Apart from this we will also be having environment related workshops at 4.30 pm everyday like bird calls, rhythms and drums, kitchen gardening and e-waste. And at 6 pm there will be a snake awarenes programme which will be conducted by Green Cross.”
Another new activity this year will be the art installation project which will be conducted by young Goan artist Sagar Gawade. The students of Goa Institute of Management will also be setting up a stall at the site and creating awareness on inclusion and assistance to children with special needs at public events. “ This initiative is part of our GiveGoa project which we have in college. We will also have a signature campaigh and if we collect enough signatures we will be petitioning the DOE for more support for special needs children,” says Preetish M, student, GIM, while Zenelyn Afonso adds that they will also be using Facebook and other social media to create further awareness on the same.
Apart from this, Bookworm will be creating a book centre at the Samba Square where children of all ages can come and enjoy reading the books of their choice. “We will also bring along a collection of Braille books and especial tactile books created especially for children with special needs. There is a wealth of learning in every book and our aim is to make sure that books are accessible to every child,” says Sujata Noronha of Bookworm.
