Children International Kansas City held its traditional 2014 Art Contest from October 6th to 10th. The selection of the Jury Awards took place during the last week of October through a participatory process of engagement and selection using the Facebook Social Network.
This year the contest had two themes again, one for the under-17 category and one the 17-18 year old participants. According to Maria Witzgall, staff member of Children International in Kansas City, both children and young people articulated their themes in a very nice way.
“The theme of the traditional contest provided a variety of ideas that our children have in mind to improve the world, such as: to care for the environment, to save resources, to educate themselves and others, to promote changes in attitudes and behaviors, to improve health and sanitation in the community, and to care for others”, explained Witzgall.
She also said that “young people (17-18 years old) showed us through their art that they are promoting positive changes in their communities while serving as leaders, role models, teachers and volunteers in the places where they live. Young people depicted themselves working with others to improve schools, communities and to protect the environment (…); they showed that they are making informed decisions and are getting involved in sports (…), that they are aware of the social problems around them and that they are thinking of ways to mitigate these problems by making good choices while exercising their rights”.
Hundreds of children in the Dominican Republic participated in this process. Jerson Cristino Gómez won First Place in the 12-16 age range category; and Reimis Rafael Lahoz was the winner of the “Jury Award” which is awarded to participants’ drawings that were not selected as finalists, but that impressed CI employees. Sponsors participated in selecting the Jury Awards by voting through Facebook. Each Jury Award winner will receive US$50.
The winning drawings are published on CI World www.exprore.ciworld.info to be seen and enjoyed.
Children International is a child-centered institution that promotes welfare and development programs in 18 agencies located in Central and South America, Asia, Africa and the United States. We work in the Dominican Republic since 1979, under the legal name Programa Amigo de los Niños, Inc (Friend of the Children Program). Our work is aligned with the Millennium Development Goals and focuses on eradicating extreme poverty, through the promotion of participatory leadership, where the rights of the children and gender equality are cross-cutting themes of our programs. We work with over 30,000 children in the main areas that affect their lives such as education, health, nutrition, prevention, leadership, community participation, health emergencies and catastrophic situations, among others.
        
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