Junk Food & anemia
- Kidsfreesouls

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) revealed the research that 80% children in Gujarat are anaemic. The fast changing food habits with increased eating outs culture in Gujarat and especially, Ahmedabad is playing havoc with the health of children in the city. The junk food and wrong choice of food with inadequate physical activity among children is aggravating the problem. Anaemic among children is found more due to lack of eating vegetables and fruits. Anaemic children behavior is found to be changed in terms of memory loss, attention deficiency with poor performance and other health affects with brain functioning due to deficiency of iron. Junk food should be replaced with more nutritious food and doctor community is alerted to take this issue seriously and also counsel parents with the ill effects to focus on healthy balanced diet.

Gujarat is 5th largest contributor to Global Warming in India
- Ahmedabad

Gujarat is the 5th largest contributor to Global warming in India. The report comes from CGD (Center for Global Development) in Washington whose database confirms the information of cabon emissions of 50000 power plants and 4000 power companies worldwide. The data is a part of Carbon monitoring for action (CARMA) of the CGD. The thermal Power  plant of Wanakbori, Gujarat (Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd.) is one of the top 10 largest generators of carbon dioxide in the country from among 377 power plants responsible for releasing greehouse gases at an alarming rate. CARMA has issued alerts against 53 power plants out of the 164 present in the state. Some of the projects falling in the category are Ukai dam, Gandhinagar, Pandharo, sikka, Dhruvan and kutch projects among the 10 highest green house gas emittors. Projects of Tata chemicals, Mithapur, GIPCL, Mangrol and AEC, Ahmedabad also are found with higher levels of carbon emission. Out of the top CO2 generators, Uttar Pradesh comes first followed by Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and 5th as Gujarat.

Gandhi Ashram to be declared 'Silence Zone'
- Kidsfreesouls

Gandhi Ashram will soon be declared a 'Silence Zone' in Ahmedabad as declared during a meeting held in Gandhinagar attended by State Ministers and senior administrative officers of Guj Govt. Gandhi Ashram and its adjacent areas will be 'Silence zone' and 'No Demonstration zone'. Proper transport facilities will also be provided to visit the Ashram. Gandhi Ashram will be brought to World Tourism Map by providing and creating favourable environment in and around the Ashram. Support by the Government is sorted from those who believed in Gandhian philosophy to also build a Dandi Yatra route.

WED at CEE
- Kidsfreesouls

WED is one of the significant environmental days observed by CEE to spread awareness about the environment on World Environment Day, June 5. CEE observes an Open Day. People, young and old, come to the Centre and spend the day on campus. CEE sets up various activities and events on the campus to spread awareness about environment, nature appreciation, encouraging environment-friendly habits and highlighting the WED theme for the year. The Pick Right theme of CEE spreads the message to save environment with CO2 Pick Right - Towards Sustainability and Growth. This year, the CEE campus has organized an Organic Fest with value eating products and recipes made out of it. The event is open for all on 4th and 5th June.

Workshop on Climatic Changes for Teachers
- Kidsfreesouls

A one-day workshop on ‘Towards a Low Carbon Economy’ focusing on climatic changes and carbon credit will be organized at Gujarat Council of Science City (GCSC), under the aegis of department of science & technology, government of Gujarat on the World Environment Day. The programme aims at increasing understanding and awareness about the present scenario of Climatic change and global warming. About 75 science teachers, community science centre members and science communicators and young students will be participating in the programme.

The World Environment Day, commemorated each year on June 5, is one of the principle vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates world-wide awareness of environment issues.

Global Warming Lessons in school books
- Kidsfreesouls

Gujarat State to introduce global warming in school books in view to create awareness among students. The school books for std. V to X will now have chapters on Global warming beyond the occasional school projects and chart making. The syllabus will be outlined by the Education department for introducing in the next academic year 2009. Being the most serious challenges that the world faces today, efforts to create awareness is the need of the hour as Global Environment chapters are missing in the present syllabus.

Indian boy shines as new US King Bee
- Kidsfreesouls

13 year old Sameer Mishra, an eight grader beat 288 children to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee Trophy. Sameer participated for the fourth time and was trained by his sister who is a spelling bee enthusiast. Besides the Trophy, he gets $30000 in cash and $2500 worth US savings bond from Merriam Webster with a complete reference library. The second place went to another Indian American, 12 year old Siddharth Chand, a seventh grade student. Among all, four Indians were amongh the last 12 in the finalist with Kavya Shivashankar in the fourth place and Janhnavi Iyer was in the 8th place.

World Tobacco Day Initiatives
- Kidsfreesouls

WHO declared 31st May 2008 as World Tobacco Day. No Smoking and No chewing Tobacco. The common hazards for Tobacco are diseases like Cancer, Heart attack, Asthma, cough, mouth ulcers and many other diseases. Initiatives were taken by HCG - Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd., network of Cancer Hospitals, Medi Surge Hospitals in Ahmedabad for No-Tobacco - No - bacc - off. They showed ways to free off from the habit with keeping in mind the hazards and public interest. In Baroda, over 1300 posters were prepared to create awareness for No Tobacco Day. The department of Psychiatry in New Civil Hospital (NCH) launched a 'quit line' campaign to help people in the efforts to counsel and quit die hard habits. The quit line will help diagnose symptoms and then advice appropriate drug theraphy and counselling. The helpline phone nos to avail counselling is 98252-80320, 9426755927.

The Union Health Ministry has also declared No Smoking with strict rules on the prohibition of Smoking in public areas. Smoking will be banned at work place, shopping malls and cinema halls., airport lounges and even pubs and bars from October 2 (birthday of Gandhiji). Initiated efforts by the Health Minister Ramadoss two years ago, the ban will be enforced with Doctors, students and paramedical staff taking the oath to fight the battle against Tobacco. The Ministry is adamant to chase the Manufacturers out of India, it is learnt.

Chess in school curriculum
- Kidsfreesouls

The Gujarat Govt. has introduced Chess as a compulsory subject in schools. Playing chess improves mental health by 7-8 percent and so it will be win win situation for all school going students, said Mayur Patel who plays the biggest role in the implementation of the project. The teachers will be given training, books on the sport, chess kits, the costs for which are being underwritten by the Ahd Dist. co-op Bank Ltd. It is yet not decided whether Chess will be treated as a subject or become a part of the curriculum or be an 'extra-curricular' activity. This will be worked out at a later stage.

Govt. announce Child Scholarship Scheme
- Kidsfreesouls

Government approves Rs.3000 crore Child Scholarship Scheme. In a bid to arrest dropouts among poor and meritorious students, the Government announced at least one lakh scholarships of Rs.6000 per annum would be awarded to students at the class IX level till class XII. Students whose parental income sources is not more than Rs.1.5 lakh would be eligible to avail the scholarship meant for students studying in government, local body and government aided schools.

Science Express - Knowledge on wheels
- Kidsfreesouls

Knowledge of Wheels, the Science Express lands up at Kalupur Railway Station on Thursday (24th April). School kids and Amdabadis gather at the Railway Station Platform to see the video displays and interactive models. There are 13 air-conditioned coaches displaying unique themes including Big Bang, The Erth, bio-technology, the world of sense, genetics, computer applications in medicine and the like. There are number of chemistry experiments for children which show importance of chemistry in life. The Science Express has different aspects of science - from global warming to evolution of man, functions of human brain to the mysteries of science. The Express has 300 pictures, 150 videos and multimedia presentations. There are around 40 Science communicators and technicians team who are present to impart knowledge. The train will remain from 24th to 28th April in Ahmedabad. The CM Narendra Modi is focused on taking the Science Express to the Science City in Ahmedabad and place for Educational study.

Gujarat Foundation day at Amreli
- Kidsfreesouls

The 49th Gujarat Foundation Day celebrations will be held on May 1 at Amreli District in Saurashtra. This Foundation day will be celebrated as Gaurav Divas and several cultural programmes and awareness campaigns will be organised on the occassion. CM Narendra Modi and Governor Naval Kishore Sharma will remain present.

University for Children
- Kidsfreesouls

Raisan village near Gandhinagar to have an exclusive University for Children, the first of its kind in the World. The State Govt of Gujarat has all plans to set up Children Education and has earmarked Rs.1 crore for its development. This is the pet project of the CM Narendra Modi who is aggressively pushing forth the idea. The code named Project 'Bal Gokulam Institute' is in pipeline as top officials are gathering ideas and researching further to set up the world's best Institute. There are 10 children universities across the world but none of these are exclusively devoted to child education. This University will exclusively focus on Children issues and focused on developing techniques, methodologies and tools to make education fun. Teachers will be educated on simplifying teaching methods. With over 85 lakh primary and 15 lakh pre-primary students in the State, this is a great dream project of the Govt.

CEE Mag KidsRgreen in Finals of International Contest
- Kidsfreesouls

KidsRgreen - A CEE initiative for 2008 focused on Climate Change has reached the finals in the Stockholm Challenge Award 2008 in the Environment category. In the year 2007, Over 1000 students, 13 schools, 79 teachers and 20 journalists in five locations of India—Pune, Goa, Lucknow, Alirajpur and Ahmedabad have been oriented about the website and its use as an educational resource - says the reports on Stockholm Challenge data.

The Stockholm Challenge is an information, communication and technology for development programme at the Royal Institute of Technology dating back to 1994. Out of 400 Projects, 145 finalists feature under various categories like culture, economic development, education, environment, health and public administration.

Crucifixion 'Way of the Cross'
- Kidsfreesouls

St. Ignatius Loyola Church organised 'The Way of the Cross', a play portraying the crucifixion and death of Christ at Calvary. The actors included students from the school, colleges and even professionals. The message flow of the play was that instead of weeping over Christ cross, there is lot of evils in this world to weep over. Good Friday was marked to spread the message of humanity and forgiveness.

World Puppetry Day
- Kidsfreesouls

World Puppetry Day was celebrated on March 21, Friday with puppeteers celebrating in town. A puppetry rally was organised by Meher, an NGO who had the theme of 'Save the Girl child' and 'Save the Environment.' The procession entertainment started at Vidhyapith to reach Vastrapur lake carrying posters with slogans and puppets. The rally was organized as to spread awareness about the art of puppetry. Children had a grand time enjoying puppet show.

Tanay Joshi Outshines as Youngest Pianist
- Kidsfreesouls

Tanay Joshi, a 7th std, Rachana School student, outshines as Youngest Pianist and holds a Diploma in music. He is a master Keyboard player who aims high to be a musician as he takes on the courses to Trinity School of London. Tanay is a student of Vibrations Music conducted by Saurin Upadhyay (M-9327028548). Tanay Joshi who has been recently interviewed on 'Killol', a TV show of a Gujarati TV channel says, "Music is my life and like any profession, I chose this one and hope to be a musician one day."  Tanay Joshi is also featured in Limca Book and stand among the first three nominations on Pogo Amazing Kids as Keyboard Player in Music category, the results of which will be announced soon. Tanay has appeared on many shows and performs Piano playing with expertise at a very young age.

CEE Bags India NGO Award
- Kidsfreesouls

The city based Centre for Environment Education (CEE) was awarded the India NGO Award for the western region in the large NGOs Category in New Delhi recently. The award recognize good standards and practices in resource mobilization, accountability and transparency, celebrates excellence in the non profit section, identifies and strengthens successful resource mobilization practices, creates examples and inspiration for others and promote cross regional learning and overall credibility of the non profit sector for long term sustainability. The Award was received by Shyamala Mani on behalf of CEE.

Exam Fever Grip Students
- Ahmedabad

Examination Fever grip students as Board Examination begins on 10th March. Many students and Parents have sorted for counselling help, vaastu guide, astrologers, etc. Around 11 lakh students of Std.X and XII will appear for the exams in over various centers. This year, the students will have strict rules while appearing for exams. They will have to follow rules like, no uniform, remove shoes outside the classroom, carry only transparent water bottles, etc. In case of any questions regarding seat number of examination centres, students can call the Government helpline nos. 26427400-401 between 11-5 p.m.

Pakistan Peace Maker Asma Jehangir Visits Gandhi Ashram
- Kidsfreesouls

Asma Jehangir, a renouned Human rights activist and United Nation's special reporter on freedom of religion and belief, was in town recently. she met Government officials, NGOs and mediapersons apart from meeting younger children in the city. She gathered information and found how healing among communities had taken place after the 2001 communal riots. She visited Gandhi Ashram to see the way of life of one of our greatest leaders and legacy. Gandhi Ashram left an inspirational influence on her. She will be making her report based on her interaction with various people in town.

City gets new Gardens
- Kidsfreesouls

City gets 70 more gardens this year with a total number leading to 201 gardens by AMC in town. The area of these gardens with range from 3-4000 sq. mts. 65 Gardens will be made in the residential areas with no recreational facilities. However, five gardens will have children's play area and facilities for recreation. In the 2008 Budget, the Corporation has allocated Rs.15 Crore for development of gardens in the city. Hence, the project is under pipeline and expected to offer eight new gardens as beginning soon by summer.

Sardar Patel Museum to go Hi-tech
- Kidsfreesouls

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial, a museum which houses the memories of the Iron Man of India, is all set to go Hi-tech with renovations totalling to Rs.18 crore to make the museum up to the national level memorial to exhibit the life and work of Sardar Vallabhbhai. The Memorial will be equipped with Research and resource centre, a Library, Medical Health centre, creativity and child development centre, recreation centre and Hi tech conference Hall. Earlier known as Raj Bhavan, the building was also used as Governor's Official residence for many years. On March 7, 1980, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial was inaugurated by Sardar Vallabhbhai Memorial Society.

Parents seek to Counselling
- Kidsfreesouls

Parents seek not only Educational  Counsellors  and psychologists but also astrologers to vaastu shastra experts as examinations begins soon. Parents are worried and pose various questions to Counsellors, vaastu and feng shui experts. What direction to sit and read, what colors to wear and what to do, what not to do, is all suggested by the Vaastu experts and Feng shui counsellors so as to get success. The Counsellors have been giving guidelines for better results too. Even the Guj Government seems to be worried as students appearing for Board exams are receiving pamphlets with CM Narendra Modi's Photograph along with the hall tickets which specify helpline center set up phone numbers which will be operational for facilities to students till the exams continue.

Kids Zone at Vastrapur Lake
- Kidsfreesouls

Anand Niketan School children joined hands with the Riverside Projects as nearly 600 children from diverse backgrounds gathered as almost 300 kids of Anand Niketan shared their knowledge and showered love to them. The young students stylized their hair, put tattoos and competed with the loud Hindi music. They also painted and had a happy time. Parents were not allowed to remain present at the venue.

Celebrating Hanuman Returns
- Kidsfreesouls

About 400 Municipal school students were showed Hanuman Returns, a mythological movie on a big screen to bring smile on their faces.  The show screened at City Pulse was intiated by AProCh, the project of Riverside School to healp create the first child friendly city in India. The experiment creates opportunity for underprivileged children to watch movie every month, for next two years.

Happy Birthday - A day to Celebrate Infrastructure Boom!
- Kidsfreesouls

No year was celebrated as Ahmedabad's Birthday till today when all Newspapers announced 26th February as Birthday of Ahmedabad! The city was established in 1411 but the exact date of its Birthday remain disputed upto now. The controversy hover that Ahmedabad was founded on ...

- Hijri Samvat 813, 2nd of Zilkad month which is February 26, 1411 as per Islamic calendar
- Vikram Samvat 1468 7th of Vaisakh sud which is April 17, 1412 as per Hindu Anushruti
- March 4, 1411 says Ahmedabad gazetteer
- 1411 says Mirat-e- Sikandari Mirat-e-Ahmadi has three dates: 1411, Vikram Samvat 1393, 1449 Sak
1314, none of which match.
- 1413 Tarikh-e-Farishta 1411 in Aain-e-Akbari
- 1413 Gujarat gazette
- January 26, 1411 says the AMC website

You can find more details here on Toi epaper as the news do not appear in main headlines!

Oscar goes to Gujarati Animator
- Ahmedabad

Apurva Shah, a Gujarati has grabbed the Oscar as Best Animated Feature went to Ratatouille at the 80th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. He was overall in-charge of all the special effects and animation as well as involved in defining the look of the film along with the film's Director, Producer and Photography Editor. Ratatouille also grabbed Golden Globe, BAFTA and Germany Awards in different categories along with other 33 awards.

First Children's University in Gujarat
- Kidsfreesouls

The State Government has announced that it will establish Country's first Children's University in the State of Gujarat as a part of 'Nirogi Balak Year'. Initially, an institute called 'Bal Gokulam' will commence which will later convert to Children's University. The aim will be at developing scientific methods for facilitating mental and physical development of a child. It will be a hub for training personnel involved in teaching and other developmental aspects of children. The first ever center where numerous methods of child learning like recreational activities, toys, children songs, movies child nutrition and other aspects will be scientifically tested and studied for implementation of methods that will contribute positive to children's well being and developmental areas. The Nirogi Balak Year 2008-09 is focused on the quality of childrens life and stress would be weighed on bringing down the Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality rate.

Namrata Jaykrishna, Raghav, Simran help riverside for a Sintex Cup FootBall win
- Kidsfreesouls

The Riverside School which recently took up soccer have pride to win the Sintex Cup Football win for Boys and Girls. Raghav Todi bagged all the goals in Riverside boys' victory over Kahaani Tigers in the Under 11 Finals. In Girls, Namrata Jaykrishna scored the only goal of the girls U-14 final against Anand Niketan school. The outstanding player for Riverside turned to be Simran Singh who kept the rival defenders busy and posed a threat for Anand Niketan.
- Namrata Jaykrishna's Blog as Kids Reporter, kidsfreesouls

Run for Life
- Ahmedabad

After Bombay Marathon, it is Amdavadis to run for a Cause in June 2008 with the International Marathon to be held with the theme "Run for Life." In the first ever Marathon here, the event is expected to be participated by 20,000 runners on June 8, 2008. A Gandhinagar based NGO,Udgam Charitable Trust has organized the event. Udgam has been working on issues related to sanitation, livelihood, women's empowerment and rural development. A designer T shirt are put up for sale on a website www.myntra.com with sporting four symbolic icons Mahatma Gandhi, Sidi Saiyyed Jali, wheels depicting Gujarat's Industrial heritage and a runner based on how Gujaratis sportingly accept even mammoth challenges like earthquake and floods. The T shirt captures true spirit of India. A community is also opened in Orkut with title, 'Ahmedabad Marathon 2008.'

Kite Festival "Gujarat in Africa" Theme pavilion
- Kidsfreesouls

World's top Kite flyers in town
- Kidsfreesouls

Kite festival begins in town from 11th Jan as International competitors participate in International Kite festival competition where contestants can match their skills with the best in the world. The tourism and culture department has introduced five competition categories such as miniature kites, painted kites, Indian fight kites, collage kites and the like. A panel of four judges, one each from Netherlands and France and two from India will judge the participants. The even is held on 12th January with winners to be awarded on 13th January. 140 kite lovers from various countries are expected for the International Kite festival. Kite and cultural festival programs will begin from 11-15 in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and children to perform in cities like Jaipur, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Secunderabad, Pune and Indore. The workers of Kite making are busy making Kites and manja for Uttarayan.
- Kite festival details

Traffic Rules Awareness
- Ahmedabad

A group of professionals like doctors, share holders and executives have joined hands together to spread Traffic awareness among school children with a noble cause, "Safe Kids, Secure Future." 15 Professionals from various field will impart education on traffic norms. The group has roped in traffic police and school board to pass the message effectively by initiating traffic awareness programmes in corporation run schools. The group has trained around 650 students so far as many other citizens have come forward for this cause.

More News - Past News Archive / News Archive 2007