Storytelling festival for over 300 kids from NGOs

Children will be told animal stories in the zoo

What could be better than a school trip to the zoo? Perhaps a day filled with animal stories shared by their creators against the backdrop of real-life animals. This is a treat that the second edition of The Story 'xpress Storytelling Festival promises to over 300 children from eight NGOs around the city on Tuesday.

Organised in collaboration with the Akshara Foundation and Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the festival will have authors Katie Bagli and Shabnam Minwala, educator, animation artiste and writer Chetan Sharma, illustrator Lavanya Karthik, storytellers Meher Gehi and Sarita Shetty and cartoonist Savio Fernandes narrate stories to children and engage them with the content in order to spark their imagination.

"There is enough taking place in the city for children [who hail from privileged backgrounds]. Even if these events are open to kids from all walks of life, the actual participation may not reflect that. That's why we thought of having a festival exclusively for children from NGOs," informs Reena Agrawal, who co-founded The Story 'xpress with Radhika Kundalia, Rachel Bhot and Chandra Baid - book enthusiasts from different backgrounds tied together by the belief that there exists a need to develop a deeper connection with children through stories.

A puppet show in progress

"We will be doing a museum story walk. A crocodile story will be narrated on the steps of the crocodile pit at the [Veermata Jijabai Udyan] zoo. Kids will be taken to the penguin enclosure, after which they will listen to the Zoo Around Us story, and learn to make penguins through origami," says Agrawal. Workshops for teachers on the power of puppets as a tool for education by Delna Daruwala, and the zoo as a conservatory by the education director of the zoo will also be conducted.

For many of these children, Agrawal shares, listening to a story or watching a live performance is a unique experience. "When we conduct workshops with them after these sessions, and encourage them to make stories of their own, so many of them walk up to us and say, 'We didn't know we had a story in us,'" she says, adding that such sessions have helped kids, who otherwise don't pay attention in class, with their studies too. Students of Sophia College, Agrawal tells us, are working in tandem with an NGO to document the impact of storytelling on kids.

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