1 Develop Young Entrepreneurs - our children will be encouraged to explore and experiment with the science of various types of food and national grains. After researching the nutritional values of several foods and grains, the children will be encouraged to creatively cook and package the foods in a very appealing manner that will attract not only the Eritrean community but also the international community. The idea behind this project is two fold.

(a) The children will learn more about their culture in greater depth, as food plays a pivotal role in Eritrea.

(b) Children will be able to apply the science they learnt at school in developing themselves and in return their country Eritrea.

2 Create an awareness of Teghadelti's past experience and life in the front line during the armed struggle and get involved in hands-on activities using arts and crafts.

3 To relate to the identity of the nine nationalities. This will include activities on the history, life-style, geography, customs and traditions of nationalities, encouraging children to come up with creative ideas on how to reflect their way of life using the artefacts, clothing and other materials available at our disposal. We will also have traditional brides of at least 3 of the nine nationalities.

4 Traditional Games - these will include Handay, Ghebeta, Hashewiye, Teley-Teley, etc, played by children of various ages.

5 Traditional music and dance of the nine nationalities, encouraging children to participate actively and fully in the preparation and presentation processes.

6 Shingrwa - based on past experience and success story of the Shingrwa programme on previous events, children will be encouraged to learn traditional songs and participate in competition.

7 National anthem in Tigrigna and Arabic - the children will have the opportunity to learn and sing the national anthem.

8 Contemporary music - children will explore the Eritrean culture and heritage within the context of Eritrean patriotism, sovereignty, self reliance and nation building strategy through the medium of contemporary music, rap and dance.

9 For the younger children under the age of six, there will be suitable and popular activities, which will include musical bumps, musical chairs, musical statues, etc, using traditional music.

10 Sports - various sports activities including football, athletics, sack race, eggs and spoon race, skipping, long jump, giant slide, bouncy castle, etc.

11 Last but not least, there will be activities for five-year old children and under in a designated area. Children will have to be accompanied by their parents/guardians.

In preparation for the aforementioned activities, the Festival Children's Programme Coordinators would like to kindly invite parents/guardians, who are interested in getting their children involved in the activities of the Festival, to an induction and training on 21st, 27th and 28th June, 2009, at Hyde Park Speakers' Corner, starting at 11 o'clock.

The preliminary induction and training that took place on Saturday 16th August 2009 at Hyde Park was full of excitement and fun. The children's performance was impressive and beyond their parents' and coordinators' expectations, to say the least.

The highlight of the day was that children who had never met before bonded well and were inseparable. To continue enhance the bonding process of our children and families, we will use the opportunity of the festival to camp at the nearby site, Lee Valley Camping and Caravan Park, Edmonton, for the duration of the festival from Friday the 3rd to Sunday 5th July 2009.

We would, therefore, like to extend our invitation to all Eritrean families to join us in celebrating our festival.

Let the children come, enjoy, learn and be creative!!

For more information, please contact Senait Tekle on 07946 289 403.