Over 1,000 children participate in Let's Live Today festival at KAEC

JEDDAH — To mark the International Disability Day, more than 1,000 children participated in a 'Let’s Live Today' festival held at Juman Park in Bay La Sun district of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) on Friday. In cooperation with the Disabled Children’s Association in Makkah, the KAEC hosted the edutainment festival. A number of educational, recreational and sports enters, and several entities concerned with the care, training, and rehabilitation of children with special needs such as, Marfa Foundation, cooperated in organizing the event. Let’s Live Today festival, which is part of the Disabled Children’s Association’s program, aimed at offering educational, medical and rehabilitative services to help disabled children overcome their daily challenges and become productive members in society. Participating children and their families had the chance to take part in educational programs, recreational activities as well as various competitions. The festival succeeded in bringing smiles in the face of the disabled children and their families. It also helped in enhancing the awareness of society on the importance of integrating disabled and healthy children by giving them the chance to communicate and play together. Chief Commercial Officer in KAEC Fahd Hamidaddin said, “Today we reached the point where we should open our doors not just for the people who live and work here, but also for other visitors. Tourism and entertainment is one of the new frontiers that are very strategic for the development of the city.” He said they started by opening their doors and creating what they called, ‘The Bay La Sun Weekend’, and then the number of events expanded into territories of sports, art and culture, and ticketed shows. “Then we realized that there are certain segments that deserve special attention and extra facilitation and this is what we are doing here today — the segment of children and adults with special needs. They deserve our special attention and I do not think that anyone would dispute that; so this is our first but it would definitely not be our last,” Hamidaddin added. Hamidaddin believes that this festival is important since integrating disabled and healthy children is a vital step in raising social awareness. He explained that children with special needs also would not want to be isolated. «They would rather prefer to blend in society and feel that they are part of a greater experience. This will help healthy children to feel that their disabled counterparts are part of them. So integrating both segments is a healthy step,» he said.