The organisers are inviting children from all over the world to submit their paintings to the UNEP office in their region before February 15 on the theme ‘Green Communities’, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs
MUSCAT — The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) kicked off the 21st annual International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment (ICPC).
The ICPC is an environmental education initiative for elementary and middle school students that uses art as its primary instructional vehicle.
The sub-themes of this year’s painting competition are “How would you like to see our environment, our communities, cities, forests, oceans, and atmosphere?” and “What don’t you like about our environment, our communities, cities, forests, oceans, and atmosphere?”
Children — ages six to 14 — are invited to participate and create artwork that illustrates their concerns and hopes for the protection of the environment in their communities, cities and countries.
“Young people play a vital role in our communities and represent our change.
This competition uses art to encourage them to think about their future and their role in building a greener, more sustainable world for us all,” says a UNEP official.
The free-style artwork must be submitted on either letter or legal-size paper and can be created using crayons, coloured pencils, watercolours, oils, etc. Individual students may enter more than one submission.
The ICPC is a signature event of UNEP'S annual World Environment Day (WED) celebrations.
The winner of the first prize will receive $ 2000 and a fully-paid trip to the 2012 TUNZA International Children's Conference (date and location to be determined).
TUNZA is UNEP'S worldwide youth forum that brings students together to discuss environmental issues and share experiences.
The 2nd prize winner will get $ 1000 and a fully-paid trip to the 2012 TUNZA International Children's Con-
best hope
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In the third, fourth and fifth categories, three, 10 and 30 winners will get a diploma respectively.
There will also be one winner from each region, including Africa, Asia and the Pacific, West Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean and North America.
Winners will be selected through a fair and impartial selection by the organisers. Regional winners will be announced on April 22 and global winners on June 5, which is also world Environment Day.
Entry Rules and Conditions for the ICPC are:
Paintings must be done on A4 OR A3 papers; Full name, age (day, month, and year), gender and full address including phone and e-mail (in English) must be on the back of the painting; Style of painting is free: crayons, coloured pencils, watercolours, etc;
Paintings that have been shown or accepted elsewhere will not be accepted in this competition; Paintings that show a particular person, an organization or a brand name will not be accepted;
Do not include any words or descriptions in the paintings; Only hard copies of paintings will be accepted; and more than one entries can be submitted.
The organisers inviting children from all over the world to submit their paintings to the UNEP office in their region before February 15 on the theme of “Green Communities”, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs.
Children from this region can send their entries to marie.daher@unep.org.
Established in 1972 following the United Nation's Conference on the Human Environment, UNEP'S mission is to provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.