The Citizens Archive of Pakistan [CAP] will be participating at the Children’s Literature Festival [CLF] being held in Lahore on 30th October and 31st October 2013. During the two day festival, CAP will be undertaking numerous interactive activities in association with their School Outreach Tours, Exchange for Change Programme and Oral History Project. This marks the third occasion that CAP will participate at the Children’s Literature Festival.
CAP’s School Outreach Tours team will be holding an interactive classroom at the festival and will be teaching history to children through interactive story telling sessions, videos and plays among other activities. The storytelling sessions will be supplemented by a play on pre-partition Pakistan and dance performances showcasing the culture and traditions of all Pakistani provinces including pre-separation Bengal.
CAP will also be managing three stalls at the venue where it will highlight its Exchange for Change programme and Oral History Project. The Exchange for Change [EFC] exhibition will feature postcard stands, audio booths and collages of students who participated in the EFC India and EFC USA iterations of the programme. CAP’s “The History Station” stall will focus on the organisation’s principal initiative, the Oral History Project, featuring sound bites and video footage from the early formative years of Pakistan.
Speaking about CAP’s participation at the Children’s Literature Festival 2013, Swaleha Alam Shahzada, Executive Director CAP said, “The objective of these activities is to invoke critical thinking among children and develop in them the desire to learn more about their nation’s culture, history and heritage. By encouraging critical thinking and sharing information from our rich and diverse history, we endeavour to help children dispel misinformation, challenge stereotypes and encourage them to form their own opinions.”
CAP serves as the first ever private Pakistani initiative to collect, archive, study, disseminate and exhibit all aspects of Pakistan’s history; both before and after partition. CAP aspires to become the foremost museum of Pakistani history, art, photography, culture, literature and historical documentation, demonstrating the strength and spirit of Pakistan from the citizen’s perspective.
