A 10-year-old Iranian girl is among the first prize winners of the International Environmental Children’s Drawing Contest, held in Japan.
Fatemeh Mahallati from Kerman, one of 20,000 children who sent their paintings to the contest, was announced as one of the winners of the first prize last week, ISNA reported.
The Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) in Kerman Province had sent Fatemeh’s painting and that of others for the contest. Fatemeh in her work, using gouache technique, depicted a colorful farm with flowers, people and animals.
“People in my painting enjoy working in the farm and being with nature,” Fatemeh said about her winning work. She also noted that she had seen natural landscapes in her visits with her family to farms and green plains.
Despite being young, Fatemeh is aware of the great value of nature saying, “environment and weather are important issues and we should take good care of whatever is related to nature.”
Talented
A talented child, she has been painting from the age of 5. At 6 years, she became an active member of IIDCYA. Earlier this month, another of her paintings won a commendation plaque in a competition in Bulgaria.
Vice-President and Head of the Department of Environment Masumeh Ebtekar, in a message, congratulated Fatemeh and her family on winning the first prize in the Japanese contest.
Since 1999, Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA) and International Certification Organization Network (IQNet) have been hosting the International Environmental Children’s Drawing Contest for children aged 7 to 15 years from around the world, supported by UNICEF Tokyo Office.
So far, the contest has been held 15 times. This year the contest had entries from a record 81 countries.
Full of imagination and artistic sensitivity, children drew pictures about nature and animals, their families and their surroundings. The works also contained messages on global environment, beyond borders and difference in cultures and languages.
The contest provides an opportunity for children of the future generation to become more aware of the global environment by drawing pictures under the theme: Environment of the Earth.
