“I Have the Right to Play” event was organized at al-Jalaa Stadium in Damascus targeting children who are staying at makeshift residential centers which host displaced families.
Organized by the Ministry of Culture, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the event marked the 25th anniversary of Syria’s signing of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Part of the event, Syria’s scout band played music, and a variety of entertainment activities and artistic workshops were held. Those included drawing, sculpturing, recycling, handicrafts, pantomimes and clown and magic games.
A number of plays were also performed by Ajyal dance theatre troupe.
“We aim to stress the child’s right to play in a safe and stable atmosphere,” Minister of Culture Issam Khalil said in a statement to SANA.
He noted that the Ministry is seeking hard to organize activities which allow children to “express themselves, give vent to their energy and articulate their dreams and aspirations,” in challenge of the all the difficulties the country is currently going through under the internationally-devised terrorist waged against it.
Sulaf Fawakherji, a renowned Syrian actress who took part in the event, said “We have to teach our children how to love their homeland and acquire the sense of belonging.”
“Children are our objective and our future,” she added, highlighting the need that “we stress that playing is one important right of theirs.”