Daily Times

LAHORE: Aaghaz-e-Dosti, a friendship initiative, has invited paintings from school students from grade 8 to 12 to send their paintings on the theme of peace between Pakistan and India with a view to build harmony among the two neighbours.

The Pakistani and Indian students are invited to send their respective paintings for the 5th Indo-Pakistan Peace Calendar. Six paintings from each side (Pakistan and India) would be selected and included in the Peace Calendar 2017, which would be released in December-January in various cities through public events.

In a joint statement, Aaghaz-e-Dosti Pakistan convener Aliya Harir and India convener Devika Mittal said that schools or students may send their paintings in Pakistan and India until September 30. Along with these 12 paintings, 12 peace messages of eminent academicians, activists, and writers would also be narrated during the release event, they added.

Earlier, these calendars were released in Islamabad, New Delhi, Lahore, Panipat, Ayodhya, Peshawar, Nashik and many other places in Pakistan and India. Every year, Aaghaz-e-Dosti receives hundreds of paintings from various locations of Pakistan and India. This year, Aaghaz-e-Dosti was planning to hold a peace exhibition along with the calendar release event, according to a statement.

“During the exhibition, we will showcase letters and greetings that were exchanged between Pakistani and Indian students through our other programmes,” said Madhulika V Narsimhan, a Delhi-based representative of the initiative, in a statement. “This year, we are hopeful to increase the places for calendar release.”

The Peace Calendar 2017 would release in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Toba Tek Singh, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bhuvneshwar, Chandigarh, Panipat, Ayodhya, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Ahmedabad, Vadodra and Varanasi besides Srinagar city of Jammu Kashmir, according to the new plan.

Along with many other initiatives that include peace workshops, discussions, letters and greeting card exchange, classroom-to-classroom connect and others, Aaghaz-e-Dosti was continuously working towards peace building at people-to-people level. This friendship initiative was completely youth-led and voluntary that works on no-cost model for volunteers.

“We are trying to build a movement for peace, as it is the common desire of every human being,” Aliya Harir asserted. “This initiative is also in line with the UN goals as well as basic human values of our subcontinent that teaches about tolerance, non-violence and harmony. Through this initiative, we are trying to enhance people-to-people relations besides helping governments.”