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KVO_ART COMPETITION_IN KOREA

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2007-09-28 20:56:41 | 조회12,021 | 댓글0

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ORGANIZATION OF THE UN'S INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S ART COMPETITION IN KOREA By: KVO International

It has been a great pleasure for the Korea International Volunteer Organization (KVO International) to participate in this successful event, the UN's International Children's Art Competition. Encouraged by the UN DESA's letter, which called for global cooperation in this endeavor, we contacted several governmental and non-governmental organizations in order to discuss hosting and promoting this Art Competition as a national event for children in Korea . In this way, we aimed to attract the attention of many children and parents, thereby maximizing awareness of global poverty and inequality among Korean children, parents, and educators. After several meetings and discussions, our partners were finally identified. Won-Buddhist Women's Association (WBWA-which also holds consultative status with the UN) has been our primary partner in implementing the Competition, and the Korea UNDP has been a strong supporter by providing valuable consultations throughout the whole process. We also obtained several other sponsors from government, business, and media, who also have been very attentive to the purpose of the Competition and actively promoted the event in Korea .

After selecting the final design of a promotional poster, we printed about 20,000 posters and 10,000 flyers to inform people about the UN MDGs and global poverty. These posters and flyers were provided for educational purposes to help people better understand the problem and to more efficiently raise awareness on the issue nationwide. They were distributed among principal mass media, schools, educational centers, and other relevant organizations. We also made the best use of Internet advertisement through one of the most popular website for Korean children and our official homepage. All the participants were supposed to apply for the Competition through the KVO International's website, where people were able to get more in-depth information on global poverty and inequality.

Through various channels of advertisement, a total of 1,147 art works were collected, and we selected the top 300 in the first round. Our judges were comprised of representatives from each of the cooperating agencies and an art professor from a university that has a very prestigious Art program in Korea . The 300 pieces are now being displayed for national attention at http://jr.naver.com/gallery/un/ , which has been a great sponsor from advertisement to follow-up. Among them, we picked the best 100 pieces, and they were sent to the UN DESA to compete with others from all over the world. We also collected several entries through KVO's Ethiopia , Kenya , and Bolivia Chapters, and those entries were sent to the UN DESA directly by our Chapters.

Children of the best 300 received special gifts (souvenir hats and stationary) for recognition of their work, which were provided and distributed by jr.naver.com Company and KVO International. The letters of recognition, signed by representatives from KVO International, the Korea UNDP, and WBWA, were awarded to the best 100 art works. The special exhibition was held with the best 100 from Korea and the best 10 from KVO's international Chapters at Seoul Children's Gallery Art Station during this summer. At the same time, 500 booklets, containing the displayed art works, were printed and distributed during the exhibition. We are very honored and excited that four of our entries were in the UN's best 200 and one was in the UN's best 50.

During the competition, there were numerous discussions and lectures on poverty, inequality, and international efforts to combat poverty among the participating schools, institutions, students, teachers, and parents. It also provided a great opportunity for them to be informed about the UN's efforts related to the MDGs. We believe that this Competition accomplished the main goal of raising public awareness on global poverty and inequality among children and others in Korea . We hope many follow-up activities from the Competition happen in Korea to continue this successful public awareness project on poverty.

We send our deepest appreciation to the UN DESA for initiating this great global event and for its continuous encouragement and active cooperation throughout the Competition. We very much look forward to working together again in global endeavors to end poverty for good in the near future.