Spurred by children's absence in school due to the disease, students make an animated movie to raise awareness
Spurred by children's absence in school due to the disease,u00a0students make an animated movie to raise awareness
Following low attendance of students in their school due to the spread of malaria, the principal and computer science students of Vidyanidhi High School and Junior college at Vile Parle have come up with an animated movie, Malaria No More, to create awareness about the disease.
With the tally of malaria patients still high, the principal, Priyanka Rajani, along with her students, decided to make the animation to inform students so they can combat the scourge.
"I observed that student attendance was plunging due to the disease. This worried me and I decided to make an informative movie," said Rajani. "I asked my computer science students to help out with the animation. They added cartoon characters to make it fun and easy to understand. Many schools have asked me for a copy of the movie so they can show it in their schools."
The movie was screened last week in the presence of Deputy Director of School Education, Sunil Chauhan. Around 3,000 students attended the screening and many took home copies of the movie on CDs and pen drives.
The students also interacted with medical experts at the event. Dr Niteen Joshi, who was present to answer students' queries, thinks movies like this one are an effective medium to abate the spread of malaria. "It is a good attempt by the students. I think all schools should do something like this." Another doctor, Nandini Kulkarni, said, "If animation techniques are used in a movie for children, it's easier for them to understand."
Shreyas Parab, a Std IX student from Vidyanidhi, said, "It was interesting and informative. My father was down with malaria and now I understand why it happened and how I can guard myself against it."
The school, in order to rev up the awareness drive, is keen to share the movie, which is in English, with other schools irrespective of their medium of instruction.
