Children and Tourism @ the National Museum

Children on display

BY CHIOMA PAMELA NDUKA
FIRST celebrated in Turkey in 1920, the International Children’s Day has become a global event, and has attracted great interest from international institutions and agencies.
The first worldwide celebration of the day was in October 1955, under the sponsorship of International Union of Child Welfare Geneva. And since that event, countries all over the world have continued to mark the occasion devoted to the little ones.
The theme for this year’s celebration was Listening and Talking and it is very symbolic considering that these days, many rights of children are being violated. Some of these include child labour, prostitution, juvenile crime, trafficking, exploitation and kidnapping, to mention a few.
The sixth in the series of Children’s Day celebration organised by the National Museum, Onikan, held last Wednesday, and it attracted a lot of children from close to100 schools located both within and outside tLagos State that were invited.
With the theme Children and Tourism, this year’s programme was designed to give children opportunity to know other cultures as they seldom travel out.
The special guest of honour at the celebration was the wife of Lagos State governor, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola, who was represented by Mrs. Oyindamola Ogala and Miss Museum 2008/09, Temilade Ibraheem. Also present were the Oba of the museum and the Sisi Oge of Africa; Mrs. Aduke Gomez of Arts and Business Foundation and Mrs. Iyabo Lawani of Maggi Kitchen, among others.
The event, which was scheduled to start at 10am, actually began at noon; however, when it did, everybody present was really satisfied with the presentations.
A lot of competitions held that ranged from cooking to march past, traditional greetings and essay, among others.
In the cooking competition, Great Immaculate Heart School came third, while De-Potential Schools was the second and Mac-David Christian School first.
For the march past, which had about 32 schools involved, Tri-System Educational Venture came third, Mac Davies Christian College was the second, while Tade International Schools was the first.
The Sisi Oge of Africa advised children to trail the path of success. She urged them to shun vices, as they are cog in the wheel of positive development.
OK Foods, MTN Nigeria, Viju Foods Ltd., Oldburger and Newbisco Ltd. Supported the event.