THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Here’s a unique initiative by the students of Government Engineering College, Barton Hill. ‘Vaibhav’, a talent fest, will be held in April, for the special needs children. The event will be held simultaneously with the three-day techno-cultural festival ‘Aagneya’.
The college organises a ‘socially responsible’ initiative every year, according to Noufal, the union chairman of the college. “Vaibhav is being organised by our Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Cell in association with the Government’s Social Justice Department. A talent hunt searching for good candidates to participate in the festival is being held. This is an idea the students came up with this year,” Noufal said.
Auditions have already been conducted in schools including the Government School for the Visually Impaired, Jagathy and Marian Playhome at Mannanthala where the organisers are searching for special children. “We also plan to hold another set of auditions at NISH, after which we are looking at conducting a semi-final competition at Vyloppilly Samskruthi Bhavan in the city. The finals of ‘Vaibhav’ will be held during Aagneya, our techno-cultural festival, and will be its flagship programme,” adds Noufal.
For Noufal, the concept of the talent hunt was born from the need to do something responsible for the society. “The theme of the festival this year is resilience-turn that pain into power. It is this same objective that we wish to fulfill through this initiative. The talent could be as simple as singing or dancing, but the aim is to let these children overcome their pain of being differently-abled and turn that into a strength. Instead of letting them retreat into their own shell, they should be able to walk along with the mainstream society. We are providing a platform for them to showcase their talents in front of an audience through the event.”
A few of the activities the youngsters had done earlier include the formation of a library in the Kottur tribal settlement and an anti-plastic campaign.”If ‘Vaibhav’ becomes a success, we will continue the initiative next year as well,” winds up Noufal. The college recently conducted ‘Photowalk’, an outdoor photography workshop with international photography contest winner Rex