Workshop The art of going green

Five-day workshop on recycled art for children at Minerva.

ISLAMABAD:

The latest project at Minerva, a five-day workshop on recycled art for children, aims to create awareness about environment degradation and ways to adopt a more environment-friendly lifestyle.

Titled “Children Going Green”, the workshop was inaugurated here at Minerva on Monday. The workshop will share with participants the principles of conservation, recycling and reuse, and help them construct art pieces from things they normally don’t use or would throw away, such as old CDs and cassettes, bottle caps, cans, broken gadgets, empty boxes and buttons.

Minerva’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sana Khalid said, “The thought of our world getting to a point where fresh air and clean water were things of the past seems outlandish to a lot of us, even today. But now, more than ever before, going green is important. Let’s not wait for us to be left with no option before we decide to take an action.”

Slight changes to our lifestyle can make a difference and once we adopt a more “green” lifestyle we will realise that your cost of living goes down too, said Khalid. “Choosing to live an environment friendly life is as simple as using paper bags instead of plastic bags,” she added.

The first day commenced with ice-breaking activities including dumb charades and Chinese whispers, followed by a presentation on what going green means and why we should adopt a more environmental-friendly lifestyle.

Children brought with them an assortment of boxes, bottles, old clothes, broken toys and other items that they will be using during the workshop to create new and innovative art pieces and decoration items. A few of the children present at the workshop had participated in Minerva’s summer camp earlier and were thrilled to see each other again.

The children shared with each other their ideas of what they think recycling is and how they can conserve resources. “I turn off the tap while I brush my teeth,” said one participant; another complained, “I don’t like it when people throw away litter on the roads.”

At day two of the workshop, children were seen engrossed in reusing and recycling old magazines and newspapers to make art pieces. With most children observing their fast, none of them seemed bored or lethargic.





Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2011.