ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (Lok Virsa) has developed a three-year strategy to promote traditional cultural heritage of the Country.
The Executive Director Lok Virsa Dr. Fouzia Saeed told the state-run news agency in Islamabad that Lok Virsa was focusing to engage ethnic communities and develop a cultural identity among youth.
However, she said “Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan were our top priority and we worked very closely with children and youth of Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan”.
She said that the public response to each initiative was superb, not only in attending our programs and visiting Museum as we worked closely with the provinces.
Highlighting the projects of current year, she said that craft of the month, where folk crafts were taught, attracted 15,000 children and expressed hope to set a trends in the schools for inviting master artisans.
She said that “our summer camp for children introduced with various Pakistani languages. So far we have covered Wakhi, Balochi, Sindhi, Pashto and children summer art camp in Brahvi and Punjabi languages in full swing.”
Dr. Fouzia Saeed said that Lok Virsa in collaborating with ethnic students organizations and communities also planned and organized various cultural shows.
She said that Lok Virsa was also working on research work in field of cultural heritage in collaboration with Universities.
The Executive Director Lok Virsa said that a two-day language festival in collaboration with Indus Cultural Forum was held bringing together scholars over 20 Pakistani languages on the International Mother Language Day.
She said that a new diorama of Hazara community was established at Heritage Museum fully owning Hazara culture of Balochistan and the community.
She said that Lok Virsa also arranged loads of folk music programs and held music classes for Rubab, Saroz and Flute.
The Executive Director said that Lok Virsa also organized celebrations of Eid, Christmas, Vesakhi, Nowruz, Holi and Basant.
She said that a 10-day annual Lok Mela was arranged with more organized, diverse and cultural way to entertain thousands of visitors.
“We are sharing DVDs of Lok Virsa’s new productions of music programs this year. This also includes a set of folk beats, an English Program was produced for PTV World,” she said.
She said that Lok Virsa also organized special programs to pay tributes to legend folk poets and singers of the Country.
