Brighter futures: Kids, and their dream cars

It is our duty to make sure our children don’t let go of their imagination and dreams.

The Dream Car Art Contest is an international event organised by Toyota for children to explore their imagination and design the car of the future.

It is the only competition of its type held in Pakistan where children, as well as parents, can learn and realize that cars nowadays are designed by transportation, industrial and automotive designers, rather than engineers.

The children, who took part in the 5^th Dream Car Art Contest, might have been young, but they were also aware of problems around them. Most entries by Pakistani children revolved around solving their country’s problems. It made me proud to see the level of responsibility shown by the kids.

There were three age categories, Under-10 years, 10-12 years and 13-15 years, and five prizes. The top three winners are going to be invited to Japan for a special awards presentation ceremony.

Fatima Noor, 12, who took first position with her artwork “Monkey Car,” also managed to secure a place in the top 30 international winners’ list becoming the only Pakistani to representing her country.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why Fatima made a monkey design. Her car is supposed to move like a monkey with the help of trees to avoid traffic jams. Almost all the entries made by Pakistani children involved cars that could either fly or use some other way to avoid traffic jams.

Syed Ali Ishaq, 9, came in second place with an Ice Cream Car. I love the idea of having an ice cream car in the scorching days of summer, especially when there is no electricity in our homes most of the time. Ali saw a prevailing problem and gave an effective and ‘cool’ solution.

Adeel Ahmed, 8, took third position with a Bird car. I wonder what made him want to fly but the view he presented was surely enlightening.

Two entries displayed how the war on terror and other forms of daily violence have left a lasting impact on our children’s mind.

Taha Farooq, 11, made an ambulance with tall legs, to make sure that never again does anyone die in traffic jams.

Muhammad Ali Abbasi, 13, drew something he called Green Peace. You don’t have to be a psychologist to see what made the kid so responsible at such a young age.

Such competitions provide parents with the opportunity of getting to know what their children are interested in and, it is their duty to make sure their children don’t let go of their imagination and dreams, especially when there’s a shortage of automotive designers in our country.

This post was originally published here.