Latest News

Messages from children on gender: winners of drawing competition announced

Two 10-year-olds, from Algeria and Syria, are the winners for the Mediterranean and Middle East region of EuropeAid’s fourth drawing competition on gender equality, the organisers of the competition have announced.

 

The competition, launched on International Women’s Day on 8 March, is aimed at motivating children from the EU’s partner countries to participate in an exercise of awareness on the role of women in society.

 

The entry from Mohammad Izzo of Zeinab Al Hilalieh School in Syria, is titled, ‘Woman, like Man, can bring justice’, and shows female judges delivering justice. The entry from Lila Gazaili from Algeria, is titled, ‘To succeed in life and build a good world, the best way is to study at school. After the boy and girl manage to find different works, they can build their future and improve their quality of life and of the world.’

 

The winners are awarded a prize of €1,000 each, which will be used to buy books, computers, pay for school or library fees or other education materials.

 

Some 50,000 children, aged 8-10, from across the world submitted entries in the six different regional categories. More than 600 drawings were selected and sent to Brussels for final selection. The 14 overall winners were selected by a jury of 50 children from the European School of Brussels I.

 

As well as for their originality, creativity and artistic quality, winners were selected according to their capacity in expressing a strong message relevant to the context of their country.

 

The Drawing Competition, organised for the fourth year in a row, has been able to mobilise and raise the awareness of both children and adults around the issue of gender equality. It has also given EU Delegations the opportunity to open the debate at institutional level by involving the relevant national and local authorities in the planning and implementation of the competition and in so doing enhancing ownership.

 

In November an exhibition of the winning drawings will take place at the Musée des Enfants in Brussels. The exhibition will be opened on the 9 November, the day after the International Day for the Elimination of the Violence against Women.

 

The European Commission is deeply committed in mainstreaming gender equality through its development cooperation. On 14 June the Foreign Affairs Council adopted the EU Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development for the period 2010-2015. The Action Plan, applicable to both the European Commission and Member States' development cooperation, aims to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on gender equality and maternal health, as well as to contribute to attaining other international development goals related to gender equality. (ENPI Info Centre)

 

Press release

 

EuropeAid announcement

 

Winning pictures – photo gallery

 

EuropeAid – Gender equality

 

EU Action Plan on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Development

 

Europe for Women