Childhood In My City At Hyderabad Literary Festival II #Urban95 #childfriendlycities

We are continuing from our previous post – Childhood in My City at Hyderabad Literary Festival I, in which we shared about the Stage Talk Show by Child Leaders and Child Journalists. Now we’re sharing about other aspects of the participation of our Child Leaders and Child Journalists in the Festival.

Display of Paintings and Photographs by Children

We proudly displayed twenty paintings by children from the urban slums of Hyderabad, depicting their dreams of  a child friendly neighbourhood. Also displayed were twenty photographs taken by the children to show the issues they face with regard to their physical living conditions. These were displayed at Goethe-Zentrum, Hyderabad.

The Deputy Mayor of Hyderabad, Shri Mohammed Baba Fasiuddin,  inaugurated the painting and photo exhibition.  He spent time looking at the pictures and interacting with the Child Leaders and Child Journalists.

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Shri Fasiuddin also released the latest edition of Patnam Lo Maa Balyam, a newsletter written and edited by children for adults. The Child Journalists and Child Editors are drawn from 60 urban slums in Hyderabad. The paper shares success stories, advocacy news, highlights issues and suggests solutions.

Interaction with visitors and sharing about #childfriendlycities and #Urban95

The Bernard van Leer Foundation has launched an initiative called Urban95. Urban95 asks a simple question: if you could see the city from an elevation of 95 centimetres – the average height of a healthy 3-year-old child – what would you do differently? How would you organise neighbourhoods, public space, green areas, housing, and transportation? What else would you change or improve in the city?

To sensitize visitors to looking at the city from a child’s perspective, Divya Disha placed cutouts, 95 cms in height, of a boy and a girl and invited visitors to look through the eyes of a 3 year old. The Deputy Mayor of Hyderabad, was also invited to do this and he obliged.

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Children Interacted With Visitors

Child Leaders were present at Goethe-Zentrum on all three days of the Hyderabad Literary Festival (27, 28, 29 January 2017), interacting with the visitors and sharing their ideas, thoughts and opinions on child friendly cities.

Visitors were invited to share their ideas for making Hyderabad child friendly, by writing on post-it notes and placing these on the Idea Tree. Over 300 visitors shared their views.

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Overall, the Hyderabad Literary Festival was a great showcase for the work of Child Leaders and Child Journalists and a a good experience for Divya Disha. We are grateful to the organizers of the festival for giving us this wonderful opportunity.