LABARD Mela kicks off
City elite, top politicians, bureaucrats and heads of various special education institutions on Wednesday joined hands with thousands of special children to welcome Spring at LABARD Mela at Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park on Wednesday.
Over the years, the LABARD Mela has become a great attraction for the special children as it has attained the status of annual cultural event of the City.
As many as 7000 special children belonging to various institutions took part in different activities. There were 50 stalls where free food and other stuff was made available to the participants.
The very objective of holding this mela is to give encouragement to the disabled persons for making them useful citizens of the society so that they could be able to play a positive role in their future life.
Member National Assembly (MNA) & LABARD President Pervez Malik, DCO Lahore Noor-ulAmin Mengal, DG PHA Muhammad Mahmood, LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar, Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad, LABARD Senior Vice President Mian Nusratuddin, Joint Secretary Muhammad Saeed Khan, Ahmer Malik, Laila Nusratuddin, Shaista Pervez Malik and a large number of city elites participated in the LABARD Mela.
Addressing the participants, the LABARD President Pervaiz Malik said that it is duty of every citizen to play his role for the betterment of the society.
He said that over 10% population of all the developing countries consists of disabled persons that need to be taken care of by the rest of the 90 per cent in the larger interests of the whole society.
He said that every one should cooperate with NGOs like LABARD as nearly 200,000 people are waiting for help in the suburbs of Lahore.
While appreciating the LCCI role in making the event a big success, Pervaiz Malik said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry was also extending every help to the Lahore Businessmen Association for the Rehabilitation of disabled persons as they are an important segment of the society and their active participation is necessary for country's development. Both the speakers said that there is a need to launch specific programs for training and education of disabled persons.
Pervaiz Malik informed the participants that the LABARD was serving the ailing humanity by providing them with medical facilities and by extending Qarz-eHasna besides training and job placements. It has very recently started giving stipend to the LABARD trainees.
In his address, the LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar paid rich tributes to LABARD office-bearers for spending their time and energies for this noble cause. He said that LABARD is a feather in LCCI cap and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry would leave no stone unturned in ensuring proper assistance to the LABARD. He said that all the businessmen should at least accommodate one disabled person in his factory or office to curtail the miseries of the society.
Farooq Iftikhar said that there is a need to launch specific programmes for training and education of disabled persons. He said that the special persons possess God gifted qualities but we all should make collective efforts for enhancing their skills so that they could become useful members of the society.
It is pertinent to mention that LABARD Mela for the special children has become an annual cultural event of the City as is being participated by a large number of disabled persons who enjoy all entertainments like other healthy members of the society.