Award Ceremony of Comic and Cartoon Competition “Gender Equality: Picture It!”

During the contest, organizers received 116 drawings sent from all over Vietnam, by Vietnamese nationals aged 18 and above. This showcased a high interest among Vietnamese citizens. In their drawings, applicants pictured their understanding of women’s status and gender equality in Vietnam; and highlighted various gender issues in the country for example: increasingly imbalanced sex ratio at birth resulting from prenatal sex selection in favor of boys, violence against women and gender stereotypes that hinder the full development of women and men.

After an administrative assessment, 81 eligible drawings were uploaded to the contest’s Facebook page for online voting and received over 10,000 votes. In total, 40 drawings have been shortlisted for a 10 days exhibition in Hanoi, based on the results of the Facebook voting (50%) and the votes of the jury (50%).

The jury was composed of professional comic artist Mr. Lý Trực Dũng, UN Women Country Representative, Ms. Shoko Ishikawa and the Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam, H.E. Ms. Jehanne Roccas. The first-prize is a study tour to Belgium, known as the ‘Kingdom of comic and cartoons’. Besides touristic visits in Belgian cities, the winner will meet Belgian Deputy Prime Minister De Croo and several professional artists as well as international publishing houses.

Below are the top three winners together with their drawings.

- 1st place winner: Nguyen Vu Xuan Lan

- 2nd place winner : Nguyen Duy Thanh also won the Public’s Favorite Prize

- 3rd place winner: Trần Thu Huong

Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs. Jehanne Roccas, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium : “I am happy that about half of the 116 drawings were submitted by women. The quality was so high that I thought we could never make a choice! Even without words, drawings made us laugh, think and cry.”

Mr. Alain Devaux, Director of BTC Vietnam stressed that “Art, specifically comics and cartoons can be powerful tools to raise awareness, promote positive gender norms among society for the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment”.

The contest was first organized in Viet Nam and symbolically ran between the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November 2015 and International Women’s Day 8 March 2016. During the first half of 2015 in Europe, Belgium together with UN Women (and UNRIC and the European Commission) had also co-organized a similar contest. The exhibition of top 40 drawings of the contest in Viet Nam is open from 1 March -10 March 2016 at Women’s Museum, 36 Ly Thuong Kiet, Ha Noi.

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Media Contact:

• Hoang Bich Thao, Communications Officer, UN Women Viet Nam, Tel: +84 4 3850 0376 ; Mob: 012 0514 3996, Email:hoang.thao@unwomen.org
• Mrs. Le Thi Lan Huong, PA to the Ambassador, Press and Public Diplomacy, Embassy of Belgium in Viet Nam, Tel: 04 – 39346179 (ext: 906), Email: thilanhuong.le@diplobel.fed.be