Children create designer tote bags with patches at SIBF

The instructors from Skilldeer, an online skill development company that help both children and adults hone their skills and hobbies, provided each child with a tote bag, iron-on patches, and acrylic markers and encouraged them to let their imagination run wild. Some of the girls placed patches of the Spiderman or Batman logo, little Groot, a bag of French fries, ladybird, flowers, or emojis. A few wrote their names on the bag, or drew a heart, or a patch of grass and so on. A couple of them decided to use the microphone to announce that they were enjoying what they were doing.

According to Skilldeer trainer Tariq Khan, the idea behind the workshop is sustainability. “Rather than using plastic on a daily basis, we are trying to promote the use of tote bags. So how do we make it special? We help them customise it by providing stickers that can be ironed onto the bags, colour pens and design ideas wherein they can create their own designs and write their names so that they feel comfortable using it on a daily basis. We are not restricting them and want them to be free to choose their own designs,” he added.

The schoolgirls came from Ajman and Dubai on the last day of school visits in this edition of SIBF.

SIBF 2024, which will run until November 17, has opened its doors to over 2,520 publishers from 112 countries, and is celebrating Morocco as the Guest of Honour. The 12-day cultural extravaganza, organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, is themed ‘It Starts with a Book’, and has in store 1,357 activities for children and adults alike. SIBF 2024 is presenting a comprehensive programme of 600 workshops for various age groups, including 465 sessions for adults and children and 135 for early childhood, covering heritage, media, entrepreneurship, technology, environment, arts, life skills, and creative writing.