Children's festival on January 16

The fourth annual children's festival of the UAE General Women's Union will be held on January 16 under the theme "Children Are Our Objective", an official at the union has said.

Nora Al Suwaidi, Director of the union, said the event is being held in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Municipality, Abu Dhabi Educational Zone, Health Department, Emirates Media, Civil Defence, Abu Dhabi Police, General Exhibition Corporation, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Com-merce and Industry and other organisations.

A meeting, attended by the representatives of these establishments, discussed the preparations for the event and agreed that the main venue will be Al Mushref Park in the Buttin area. "The other venues will include the recreational centres of the union and shopping centres," Nora said.

She said that the festival will feature educational activities that will increase children's mental skills and general knowledge.

A number of competitions, games and plays are also planned. The children's icon, "Farfoosh", which was first introduced at the third children's festival, will also be present throughout.

According to officials, this year's festival is noticeably different from the previous ones in its new activities which will target different age groups that are normally neglected in many festivals.

A specific plan has been made to help achieve the goals of the festival.

Referring to the first festival, Nora said: "The union launched the annual festival in 1999 under the directives of Her Highness Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, wife of President His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Chairperson of the union, who strongly believes in the importance of children in society.

"The festival comes within the framework of Her Highness' announcement of a Higher Council for Mother and Childhood that will apply different strategies and policies to will deal with these issues on a national scale."

She said that it is crucial for the organisers of children's programmes to be aware of the changing needs and requirements of a child.

"Meeting these needs is necessary and offering different ways of educating them has been a priority for the union," she observed.

Nora said that the union should work effortlessly to lay down a plan to achieve the following goals: respecting the rights of children; personal development; strengthening their feelings of belonging and social identity; making them used to getting along with others and everything else that will help in their development and increase their sense of responsibility towards their religion and country.