Neelum, Shah Rasul colony children breathe life into The Lion King

The school has been providing education to underprivileged children since 1977.

KARACHI: Children from The Garage School brought children’s favourite The Lion King to life on Wednesday at Arts Council, Karachi.

This was the school’s first take at producing a play. The school has been improving the lives of countless underprivileged children since 1977 by providing them with education. This time around, the kids bring fame back home by giving life to their childhood memories.

“The children are from Neelum Colony and Shah Rasul Colony — both are pockets of underprivileged children,” said Shabina Mustafa, the founder of the school. “I make sure that each student goes far ahead when they leave my school.”

The children from The Garage School act out The Lion King as the first play of the school in which they perform the most dramatic scenes from the movie with precision and fervour. PHOTOS: ATHAR KHAN/EXPRESS

Although, the narration of the play was in Urdu, the dialogues were in English. The play captured everyone’s attention with its songs and dances.

The children reenacted the most dramatic scenes of The Lion King — when Mufasa dies and the fight between Scar and Simba — with great fervour and precision.

Mustafa said the play was put together in a very short time with the help of a number of people. The volunteers at The Garage School helped coordinate the play, while a group of students from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture took care of the costumes and face painting.

As the play received a standing ovation from the audience, the children grinned and waved jubilantly from the stage.

Before the play, the children wearing traditional clothes sang a welcome song for the audience. Each pair dressed up in Punjabi, Sindhi, Pathan, Balochi and Kashimiri attire danced to the tunes.



Later, Mustafa handed out certificates to female students of their adult literacy programme as her students thanked her profusely. “Before coming to this school, I only knew how to read the Quran, now I actually know the meaning of what I read,” said Samreen Saeed, a student.

There was another performance in which kids with painted faces and colourful costumes, crowded the stage, all pretending to be animals.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2014.