RIYADH — Astariqs – an organization dedicated to promoting art & painting among kids — arranged for a unique event here to celebrate the 86th Saudi National Day. More than 100 kids and their parents gathered to participate in this unique event. The kids — from several nationalities — namely, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, etc., were very excited and upbeat to participate and celebrate Saudi National Day. To demonstrate their love for Saudi Arabia — their second home – they painted unique canvass arts with various Saudi themes like the Saudi national architectural icons, Saudi emblems and several other objects from the Saudi cultural heritage. The kids were helped, assisted and guided by their teacher and mentor Asma Tariq – Astariqs Chairwoman. In all of these activities, Asma was ably supported by her faithful and loyal team members namely, Nazima Changal, Madiha Noman, Naghma Rehan, and Madiha Malik. The event commenced with the recitation of verses from the Holy Qur'an. It consisted of two parts. In the first part, kids from different nationalities participated in art competition. Eight promising kids — aged 10-14 years — with flair and knack for art were short-listed and selected to paint on bigger canvases. The rest of the 54 kids — mostly younger ones — were entrusted to express their love for Saudi Arabia by painting canvass art with various Saudi themes on small art sheets. The top 10 winners from first part of the event were as follows: Eman, Hania, Alaa, Salma, Muhammad, Ali, Majdoob, Habiba, Fouad and Areej. In the second part of the event, all the participants were engaged to paint a 12-meter long canvas art in less than 30 minutes. These canvas art were painted in the Saudi national color of green and white. This was to showcase various Saudi architectural icons, and items from Saudi cultural heritage. All of these were of course to express and demonstrate their love for Saudi Arabia — their second home. All the participating kids were very happy, excited and upbeat to express their feelings for Saudi Arabia via the expressive language of art. Their parents were very excited too. Asma Tariq of Astariqs continuously helped, assisted and guided the young & budding artists to translate the feelings of their love & passion for Saudi Arabia into works of art. Astariqs and its dedicated team members encouraged kids to sing Saudi national anthem along with their parents and other invited guests. Speaking on the occasion Asma mentioned to the participating kids about a brief history leading to the founding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "It was sheer able leadership of young and talented King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud that Riyadh was first taken over and later he united various tribes from across the Arabian Peninsula to found a modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Asma remarked. She also added that in later years the able sons of King Abdul Aziz worked hard – day in and day out – for the reconstruction of the Kingdom Saudi Arabia and transformed it to a Kingdom of Humanity. In here closing remark, Asma announced that all art participants would be joining them the next day to receive their certificates & prizes — as a token appreciation of their hard work in making this event a great success. She especially extended her thanks to the friends of Astariqs for their tireless support to host this event and make it a success. In this connection she made especial mention of the following: Nazima Changal, Haroon Tayab, Waqar Anwar, Omer Khalid and Wahab. The event concluded with prayers for the well-being of Saudi Arabia and for a long and healthy life for Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman. At the end, some light refreshments were served to the attendees.
