'Adiyalam' partcipating at Drama festival
A group of nine children from ‘Adaiyalam,’ the children’s library movement in Coimbatore, will participate in the two-day Eureka Children’s Drama Festival, beginning in Chennai on August 4.They will get to meet and interact with 150 children selected to attend the programme from various parts of the State.The Eureka Children’s Drama Festival is being organised by Aid India, a Chennai-based non-Governmental organisation, working to spread reading habit among children. “The skit they are going to perform has been prepared by the children themselves based on the stories they have been introduced to through the reading sessions organised by the library,” says V.Dhandapani, Managing Trustee of Adaiyalam.These children belong to the reading club formed by Adaiyalam at TVS Nagar in the Periyanaickenplayam block.Along with reading books, they are also encouraged to write plays based on the books they have read, he adds.Drama competitions were organised by Aid India at the village level throughout the State in which 15,000 children participated. At the block level, more than 4,000 participated and at the district level, about 500 children took part.The winners at the district-level competitions will take part in the State-level festival. This is not just an opportunity to display their talent, but also for learning a thing or two about performing on stage from eminent theatre personalities, says M.Srinivasan, Co-ordinator of People’s Theatre, organiser of the event.The themes of the skits will be as varied as folklore, fables, children’s stories and slices from the Panchathantra. Last year, a story writing competition was held for these reading clubs, Mr.Srinivasan says.
The organisation is also planning to launch a programme in Coimbatore, ‘padippum inikkum,’ in all Government schools, to cultivate reading habit in children.“We plan to start the programme in six blocks, through which we hope to cover at least 50,000 children,” he says.‘Reading kits’ containing picture puzzles, reading exercises, and other activity-based learning exercises would be distributed to children to make reading simpler, interesting and pleasurable.“It was a resounding success in the five districts in which it was launched. Only 25 per cent of the children could read before the programme was launched. But, after it was launched, the percentage rose to 70,” he says.
