As part of the Kindness Kids programme, children from various schools spent days
visiting cowsheds, conducting stray animal adoption drives and awareness programmes
on cruelty towards animals. They also won prizes at the event organized
by CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation (CPRAF) in association with the Animal Welfare Board of India
and Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, Australia.
Over 17,000 kids participated in the event that was organized in three other centers
across the country other than Chennai, which alone saw the participation of 7,878 students.
For many in the city, it was an experience they never had before. R Santhanalakshmi,
a class five student, visited a cowshed to click photographs as part of the project.
“It was very well kept. I did not think it would be well kept. But they did not allow me
to milk the cows,” she said.
B Akshaya, a class seven student from The Grove School, went around temples in the city
and took photographs of how animals were being treated there. She said that even though
an animal was considered sacred, there was no guarantee that it would be spared from cruelty.
“Elephants are sacred but they are ill-treated in the temples. The people in charge of the animals make them stand there
throughout the day so that they can make money. They don’t realize that they are
inflicting cruelty on the animal,” she said.
Nanditha Krishna of CPRAF said that there was a spike in the involvement of students
over the years. “Some students took to adoption drives of stray animals, others took stray animals
from their homes and took care of them. Students are going much beyond conventional projects,” she said.
After Gudalur and Ooty, she said the foundation is looking at spreading the programme
to areas where there were more ecological issues. “Areas like Gudalur are facing acute problems
like illegal cattle trafficking. What we found is that when these issues are pointed out to the students,
they take the message home,” she said.
Around 6,000 students participated in Hyderabad, 2,200 in Ooty and 1,250 in Gudalur.
Essay writing, oratory and drawing competitions were also held as part of the event.
BRAVO!! WAY TO GO!!
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