Qantas, adopting its first community development project in India, has joined hands with voluntary organisation Child Relief and You (CRY). To commemorate this tie-up, Qantas had earlier held a competition of painting by children, judged by eminent painter Rekha Rao. The prizes for the seven best painters include a one night, two days package tour of Singapore.

The children are part of the School Jaao Abhiyan (Go to School movement), an Experimental Theatre Foundation (ETF) project funded by CRY, covering children of four slum colonies: Babrekar Nagar, Gautam Nagar, Ekta Nagar and Islam Compound at Charkop, Kandivli (west). The movement uses theatre as the primary constructive and educative medium to spread the message of eradication of child labour. Announcing the introduction of Qantas' seventh direct flight to Sydney via Singapore from today,India and South Asia Manager, Khursheed Lam, said, ``Qantas will provide financial, manpower and moral support to the project and also work closely with CRY to identify opportunities to expand the activities and operations of the Go to School Movement in future.''

In just four years, the movement has already motivated 1,000 families in the slums and arranged the formal education of over 350 child labourers in regular municipal schools. Lam said: ``We look forward to playing an active role in educating children to make them realise their potential and help them develop as responsible members of society.'' The function ended with the performance of a street play Mera Bachpan, based on the murder of eight-year-old Shiva Murugan by his employer.

The new flight QF 124 will take off from Mumbai every Thursday t at 10.30 pm (IST) and reach Singapore at 6.20 am (local time). The flight will depart from Singapore at 7.50 am and fly nonstop to reach Sydney at 5.25 pm.