First aid boxes were made by the Garage School children for the awareness of first aid.

This is a very important theme as nearly 10% of the population of Pakistan lives with some form of disability, yet we do not provide any special facilities for them. We hope through these activities students will become sensitive to the needs and problems of the disabled persons around them and participate in making our societies better equipped for disabled persons.

Their slogan was “We have the power” to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disabilities.

The convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted in 2006 at the United Nations and was opened for signature on March 30, 2007. So far 118 countries have signed the convention, including Bangladesh. But, unfortunately, Pakistan is not one of them. They are encouraging all students to collect as many signatures as they can on a petition addressed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, urging the government to sign the convention.

On the 3^rd of December all the petitions will be handed over to Barrister Mrs. Nasreen Jamil.

16 schools participated in the programme including ABSA school for the deaf. It was a great experience for the garage school children who had never been to a theatre or watched a play.

They gained a lot of awareness too, as the programme showed how to preserve our trees, and about global warming, that temperatures on Earth will rise by 6 degrees by the end of the century. Quite scary!

It is our collective responsibility to look after our environment, to deal with difficult times, and most of all to spread love, peace and happiness.

The show ended with a message of hope involving all the participants lighting candles to the background of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem sung by Nayyara Noor. Thanks to Naheed for inviting us today.

We ended the evening by having Tipu’s Bun Kebabs and the happy school family came home after a very enjoyable evening.

I was astonished and shocked by the way they administered the injections. It was as if they were dealing with a herd of animals. The poor kids cried and some who looked anxiously at the bananas got pacified. They were pricking the needles into the children at a great speed!

Their packet of cotton wool was open and not well covered. It wasn’t a hygienic procedure at all. I wondered if they even washed their hands or wiped the kids’ arms with a swab.

Maybe they were in a hurry to cover a lot of schools in a limited time and were going to the low status areas first.

I really expected more from the UNICEF but was disappointed.

Anyway, good, bad, or indifferent, UNICEF was caring for the health of the underprivileged, and I hope and pray that they continue to do so for all other immunizations, e.g hepatitis, typhoid, etc.

I hope someone can come and spray these areas to get rid of the flies and mosquitoes as well. Wishful thinking!

The biggest temple, Swami Narian, is located on M.A Jinnah road. Noone could have guessed from the road that a big temple is located inside. It had loud music and people were cracking small fireworks.

The second day we went late night to Keamari at the K.M.C compound, where they had set up a small stage and were showing the epic drama of Ramayan. We gained a lot of knowledge and found out how many of these children in that area were without any education.

Is it because they were the minorities? We have yet to find out.

We returned at 3.30am after having a great time.

Photographs of our trip can be seen here.