BHOPAL, 31 December 2004 — To give a fillip to the peace process Bhopal, the city of lakes and mosques, is hosting a New Year sporting event aimed at peace between India and Pakistan as a team of Pakistani children travel for a cricket match for peace as part of the ‘ Beyond boundaries cricket for peace’ Return Series tomorrow.
‘Beyond boundaries cricket for peace’ is a South Asian ‘youth empowerment’ program that focuses on promoting the issue of peace and harmony and child rights.’ It uses popular sport of cricket for creating an interactive and entertaining platform through which children and the youths can have first hand experience of ground realities and issues impacting peace, harmony and child rights in the region.
The endeavor, initiated by Leapfrog and supported by Plan India, is being hosted in Bhopal by Arushi, a local voluntary organization working for disabled children. The match would be played at the Bab-e-Aali Stadium.
According to Rohit Trivedi of Arushi a contingent of 67 including 21 children from Pakistan and 27 from India would be visiting Bhopal from December 30 till January 1. During the visit to Bhopal the visitors would play a special cricket match for peace with disadvantaged group of children in an event hosted by Airtel, he added. He informed that the children would also meet Madhya Pradesh Governor Dr Balram Jhakar, interact with senior citizens, who before the partition were in the cities that were in Pakistan and have settled in Bhopal.
The children would be taken on a tour to the City, and they would have an opportunity to visit Van Vihar, Manav Sanghralaya, Boat Club, Upper Lake and will enjoy puppet show and special gesture lunch on January 1 hosted by Hotel Jehan Numa Palace.
As a long-term goal the program aims to create a space that draws children from different socio-economic and regional backgrounds in South Asia to come together and assume leadership role in initiating ideas and managing programs that create a youth movement.
This initiative was promoted to bring people together, especially children and young people, and help build awareness on key issues that impact peace and harmony and children in the region. Part one of this series started on April 20 when children from India had crossed Wagah border and along with children from Pakistan had visited cities of Pakistan. They not only played cricket matches with children there but also met people, spoke to them and media about their experiences and various issues affecting children in the continent.
The visit of children from Pakistan to India is part of the Return Series under which they have already visited various cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and would be coming to Bhopal from Hyderabad on night of December 30.
