Our planet is facing severe consequences of the anthropogenic activities. It is predicted that in the coming years these consequences are going to be worse than ever. Global warming caused by the climate change is one of the drastic consequence of exploitation caused by humans from years. It is unfortunate that our coming generations are going to suffer more than the present generation. It is need of the hour that our children are taught about the challenges that are faced by the earth.
There is a writer who is doing a commendable job in this regard. Writer and illustrator Rumana Husain has been educating children about the pressures the planet is under since the 1980s. there is no denying in the fact that helping children understand the massive pressures the planet is under can be an intimidating task. But Karachi-based writer and illustrator Rumana Husain has been connecting the dots between air pollution, plastic, development and their toll on the living world for over three decades through her exquisite picture books. She has always preferred to write and speak about nature, its bounties, trees, animals, the earth and environment, man’s cruel exploitation of the earth’s resources. She also wrote about friendship, empathy, peace, harmony and inclusivity.
Rumana Husain has written more than 60 books till date and recently, she has been on a new mission to promote reading habits among the children. She also wants to revive the culture of adults sitting down with children and read them their books because she believes that children’s books are meant to be read aloud. As in recent times, the Covid-19 pandemic forced life to slow down and enabled the families to spend more time together. It is an ideal moment for Husain’s mission. Particularly to encourage parents and children to take a moment, step back and think about the destruction being done to the planet.
She is doing this through storytelling. Since March, she has uploaded over 170 videos. As well as telling stories from her own books, Husain chooses titles from her granddaughters’ bookshelves. She posts videos on her Facebook page, Instagram and YouTube. Her writing is very unique. She uses a mixture of old and contemporary literature and a bit of poetry. In some videos, she translates English storybooks into Urdu so that they are better understood by children. In addition, some schools are using her videos for their online classes.
One of the highlighting theme of her writing is the ‘environment’. Her first books Hasan ki Gali (Hasan’s Lane), on rubbish and keeping neighborhoods clean, and Kala Bhoot, which gave life and personality to the plastic bag, were published over two decades ago – but their messages are as important as ever.
She explained the concept of sustainable development in a graphic book, Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan, about the Pakistani development practitioner and social scientist. A bilingual book Khoo-Khoo-Khoo – The Coughing City dealt with overpopulation, air and sound pollution, and infrastructure development that leaves little room for animals and trees.
Her work is celebrated both in Pakistan and abroad. In 2014, she won the fourth UBL-Jang Literary Excellence Award (2014) for Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan. Her award-winning book about the red almond tree, Laal Badam, has been translated into five languages. Prerana and Laal Peela, which she co-authored with Nepali writer Buddhi Sagar, won the Nepalese Society for Children’s Literature’s best book award.
In addition to her online storytelling, Husain recently published her first e-book for Amazon: Etienne and the Angry Dot – a story about a young child living through lockdown told in rhyme that was “bubbling inside” her. Baela Raza Jamil, founder of the Children’s Literature Festival in Lahore, told Rumana’s books are definitely nothing like the textbooks that our children are forced to read and study in schools. Reading for pleasure and lively learning is what Rumana is good at through her writings and her illustrations.
by: Abeer Arshad
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.