Amany Abdel-Moneim attends Egypt's first large-scale Universal Children's Day celebration "Give me the pad!"; "Chips, mum -- hun-gry!"; "The BIG brush!"; "No, no, let's go down the slide"; "How do you like my painting, dad?" Such was the joy at Al-Orman Park, Giza, it made Universal Children's Day (UCD) a truly outstanding event for an enormous number of children. "We wanted to hold the event outdoors from the start, to allow the participating children to run wild -- play in the truest sense of the word." Thus Mohamed El-Koossy, the man behind that special event and managing director of the company that initiated and organised it, said. UCD was born on 14 December 1954 with UN General Assembly Resolution 836 (IX), which decreed that all countries should observe it as an occasion for worldwide fraternity and understanding among children. A late comer to Egypt? According to El-Koossy, what is late-coming is the scale, which is international and Guinness Book of Records- breaking. "We all need to acknowledge and defend the basic right of every child to enjoy his childhood," he goes on. "The concept of children's rights is not really understood by most people, with the result that infractions and abuses have become routine. Adults need to be constantly reminded of children's rights if we are to secure proper endorsement on the local, pan-Arab and international levels. And I believe breaking a world record will be the perfect platform for Middle Eastern and African leaders, celebrities and citizens to deliver a message about the importance of children's rights and their commitment to protecting future generations." While El-Koossy spoke, back at the park, thousands upon thousands of children, together with their families, supervisors and teachers, were working on the 240m-handprint painting that would accomplish the feat. "I love painting very much," says Nura Onsi, nine. "It's enormous fun for me and my friends to join in something like this -- and just think, we're going to enter the Guinness Book of Records, too." For her part Kawthar Hassan, the mother of 12-year-old Ahmed, was almost as excited: "It's really innovative, we've never had such a nice event for our children in Egypt before." The world's largest painting made of handprints to date measures 209.196 sq metres (2,251.76 sq ft). It was organised by the Star Givers of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on 15 November, 2002. The work of 2,541 students celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee, it depicted Her Majesty's state coach being pulled by six horses. "Volunteers from Faculty of Applied Arts accepted the challenge of drawing the outline of the biggest handprint painting even," says El-Koosy, "a panorama of scenes from all over the world including the Pyramids of Giza, Eiffel Tower, Mount Rushmore, Big Ben and many other wonders of world. And each part is marked with an alphabetical letter that indicates a colour (A for green, B for yellow, etc.). On registering for the event, each child is entitled to one letter only. So that when the painting begins, they target the relevant areas. "Children who print the world scenes by their hand today will rule the world tomorrow," states El-Koossy. "I wanted the children of Egypt to deliver a strong message full of life -- a message of peace, the work of their own hands." In addition to the giant painting, the children and their families were given the opportunity to produce mini-paintings of their own -- not to mention a Mercedes over which they had free reign. In the course of the day children and their families were treated to a wide range of entertainment -- live music, magicians' acts and face painting artists. Adults could enjoy the soothing Spanish-Oriental fusion tunes of the local band, Flamenca. Local and international NGOs participated in the event, presiding over information booths through which they promoted their work, while private as well as public schools brought large groups of their own, accompanied by teachers and supervisors. The Pakistan International School, for one such, even performed a motivational song on stage for all event attendees. The event was held under the auspices of UNICEF Egypt with support from corporate sponsors like Jotun Paints, Mirinda, Daimler-Chrysler, Cinnabon and Heinz.
