Bhubaneswar: Three students Sana Afrin of DAV school Unit-VIII, Bhubaneswar, D Asish Kumar of Binod Bihari High School, Jajpur and Bandita Mahanta of DPS Nalco, Angul, were honoured Saturday at Regional Institute of Education for standing first in state level-competition, ‘When I am 64’. They secured top spots in English essay, Oriya essay and drawing respectively.
They were given trophies and certificates. The competitions, organised by HelpAge India, was a move to spread awareness and sensitization among school children towards senior citizens.
Speaking to Orissa POST, Sana, a class-X student, said, “My topic was what stories of my youth I will tell my grandchildren. When I imagine myself being 64 years-old, I would tell my grandchildren about cricket that I enjoyed most. Also I would tell them about the festivals I enjoyed along with my family and friends.”
She said elderly should be tread with love and affection and asked those busy in their lives tom spare a little time for their grandparents.
Bandita, who did a beautiful painting of grandparents and grandchildren playing at a park, thinks that family must enjoy with their elderly family members. “I have a lot of fun with my grandparents. We visit them during vacations,” she said.
Jajati Keshari Sahoo (2nd), Ipsita Mohanty (3rd) in Oriya essay, Anand Naik (2nd) and Aranyaa Pattnaik (3rd) in English essay and Hitasnhu Pradhan (2nd) and Sujool Sinha (3rd) also received awards at the function.
HelpAge India also felicitated 41 young talents for their achievements in the district level competitions.
Abhik Kumar Swain, Class-Ix student at DAV School, Paradeep, said that he would create a group to spread awareness about old people and their wellbeing.
Bharati Chakra, state head of HelpAge India said, “Children were asked to imagine when what would happen when they would turn 64, what the life would be, what they could do for the society at that age. Interestingly, the vivid imaginations of these participants were sketched very nicely in competitions.” (PNN)
