Kozhikode, KERALA :

Kozhikode : 

Muhammad Aasim , a 15-year-old disabled boy who had been waging a battle to get his village school at Velimanna upgraded to a high school, has been shortlisted as one of the three finalists for this year’s International Children’s Peace Prize awarded by Kids-Rights Foundation, an international children’s right organisation based in Amsterdam.

The other two finalists are teen brothers from Delhi Vihaan and Nav Agarwal who had been working towards tackling the waste menace in the national capital through their NGO One Step Greener and Christina Adane, an 18-year-old girl born in the Netherlands and now living in the UK, who had led a campaign for free school meal provision to be extended through the holidays.

The finalists were announced by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is a patron of the prize. In his message, Tutu said the finalists show, through their values and determination, just what children can achieve in campaigning to improve the rights of others worldwide.

The International Children’s Peace Prize is annually awarded to a child who has made a special effort to promote children’s rights and better the situation of vulnerable children.

The three finalists were selected from 169 nominations received from 39 countries.

Aasim was born without both hands

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kailash Satyarthi will award the prize to this year’s winner on November 13 during a hybrid ceremony to be held at The Hague.

Aasim, who was born without both hands and has 90% disability, has been spearheading the campaign to upgrade the Government Mappila UP School at Velimanna to a high school.

Acting on a letter written by Aasim, then chief minister Oommen Chandy had issued an order to upgrade his school to a UP school in 2014.

But after he reached seventh standard in 2018, wheelchairbound Aasim took up the fight to upgrade the school, which is just 250 metres away from his house, to a high school as it was difficult for him to travel to faraway schools. After his repeated pleas and even protests failed to evoke a positive  response, Aasim filed a petition in the Kerala high court which directed the education department to upgrade the UP school to a high school.

But the state government challenged the order and now his petition is before the consideration of the Supreme Court.

“Aasim has been continuing his studies privately at home for the last two years and has not enrolled in any other school. He hopes that his fight to uphold the basic right of education will succeed and will help and inspire all other children,” his father Mohammed Saeed said.

Aasim, who writes with his leg, is a recipient of the Ujjwala Balvam award initiated by the state women and child development department.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Kozhikode News / TNN / November 06th, 2021