Ms Maitri Sivaraman

Ms. Saraswathy Balaraman welcomed the speaker Ms Maitri Sivaraman and gave a brief introduction to the students about her.

Ms. Maitri had two separate sessions for the senior and middle school students of NPSI, Chennai. She had a discussion with senior school students on how the world benefits from Africa and how the world perceives the dark continent. For middle school students the topic was based on the wildlife of Africa.

Ms. Maitri Sivaraman in her talk focused on the perception of Africa as a dark continent by the world. To contrast this perception the benefits the world derives from Africa was highlighted. The focus was on the rich mineral resources like gold, diamond, oil and gas, wildlife, music and fashion. It was stressed that Africa was now turning into a booming economy using solar power and agricultural exports. Some facts about the origin of the word Africa, how chocolates, cashews, sesame were imported from there was mentioned with statistics to give the idea of the importance of the dark continent.

The session was to open the mind of young boys and girls to the real Africa and focus on the brighter side rather than the negative media image shown across the world. During the question answer session students asked pertinent questions and amazed the speaker with the knowledge they already had, about Africa.

Triti Elangovan thanked the speaker for her insights into Africa and for taking time out to share the same with our students.