Radio deejay and cartoonist teach children about bridging differences by Yvonne T. Nathan - The STAR

Telling her story: Azura (left) interacting with the children during the event. Art class:

Enigmatic Red FM radio announcer Azura Zainal demonstrated the importance of unity to nearly 1,000 pupils of Sri KDU Primary School, as part of the second instalment of the #Say SomethingNice campaign (#SSNC).

Zubedy (M) Sdn Bhd managing director and founder Anas Zubedy who initiated the campaign, was also present, cheerfully starting the event with a dance to encourage the students and teachers to be more receptive to the messages of the event.

“We are here to celebrate the positive message, that although we may look different, we are actually all the same; a people of many colours with one race,” Anas said.

Azura captured the pupils’ attention with an uplifting talk in which she used visual aids and activities to show the children the way the brain distorted information and rejected what it did not recognise.

She said a growing obsession with technology, even among children, was one of the main reasons why people rarely spent enough quality time with one another.

“People don’t spend enough time talking to their friends and the people around them because they are busy with their gadgets and phones, but communication is very important,” she said.

She recounted how she used to play with friends of different races and religions during her childhood, and later meeting people from various countries.

“We need to be able to understand where they are coming from, their culture, their background and respect people’s differences by having an open mind because at the end of the day, you can learn something from them,” she said.

Azura stressed that everyone must learn to be a little more open-minded and not judge people because of the way they look or because of first impressions.

Full-time artist and TV2 children’s art tutor Hasren Ismail, better known as Uneh the Colour Pencil King and veteran naïve artist Ismail Baba joined in the efforts with a drawing workshop.

Uneh taught the children his drawing and colouring techniques to create heart-warmingly positive messages that will be given to the National Cancer Council (Makna) and distributed to cancer patients.

Azura, Uneh and Ismail volunteered because of their belief that unity begins from experiences as youths.

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