Woineshet Bischoff
Children matter hugely and need nurturing. It doesn’t matter whether you have lots of money or very little money, or no money at all – love your children. The love of a parent is important for a growing child.
This year the National Arts Festival kindly made Grahamstown Child Welfare one of its focal points as we celebrate our 100 years of existence. The organisation appreciates the commitment it has towards our children in Grahamstown.
The Festival itself had various arts and culture in the form of plays, songs and dance and visual arts for children, and this shows children are very much considered. As we know, children are the future.
The Festival provides children with an opportunity to informally – and in a fun environment – learn, sometimes without them even realising it. Education is not only going to school and sitting in the classroom, staring at the board and teacher. It is about being creative and doing other activities outside the classroom.
Parents need to encourage and help their children to make it possible to exercise this thought within the availability of their resources, in their own home and in their neighbourhood.
Yes, some people might say we barely have shelter over our heads, and nothing to eat. But creativity, making things, often doesn’t need many resources. Before plastic toys came along, children made figurines from mud, they made bicycles from throw-away wire.
Let us also encourage our children to be creative, be themselves, write what they want, scribble and paint as they wish to express their feelings. This will lead to greater things one day, they may become in a big way singers, artists and playwrights. Who knows?
It all starts from being exposed to such things. Let us encourage our children to be what they want to be. The Festival provides parents with hundreds of opportunities to expose their children to all kinds of things, sometimes at no cost.
So let’s do it, Grahamstown! Let your children out, show them things they may never see anywhere but in our wonderful, creative city.
