IWPG 6th International Peace and Love Painting Competition Finals Award Ceremony Held

On November 23rd, the International Women's Peace Group (IWPG), CEO Yoon Hyun-sook, held the awards ceremony for the 6th International Peace and Love Painting Competition Finals online.

The award ceremony was simultaneously interpreted into 11 languages and was attended by approximately 800 people, including the award recipients, their parents, related parties, and IWPG staff.

The theme of this year's competition was "Letter to a Friend Suffering from War," and it was held in 130 cities in 53 countries around the world, with approximately 23,000 students participating, incorporating messages of peace into their paintings.

This year , a total of 112 people were awarded, including one Grand Prize winner, 12 Gold, Silver and Bronze Prize winners in each of the four categories, 20 Encouragement Prize winners and other honorable mentions. The Grand Prize winner received a prize of 1 million won, bringing the total prize money awarded to 5 million won.

The grand prize was awarded to Paola Andrea Diaz Lamprea, a Colombian student in the 9th grade at Carlos Pizarro Leon Gomez School.

Paola commented, " I expressed the cloud-like hair as people around the world coming together with the common goal of peace. In the heart, I tried to depict people helping and cooperating for world peace."

The chair of the final competition judging committee, Shauna Hammond Boyes ( representative of the New Zealand Children's Art Association), commented, "The winning paintings were of a high level of completion. The diverse paintings from all over the world reflect the differences in art experiences in each country, and the expectations of children from each country for art are also very different. However, the effort put into all the works was genuine, and the judges took that into consideration and judged them comprehensively."

Park Seung-nam, chairman of the Korea-Japan Art Exchange Association, commented, "The message of peace conveyed by the children was very powerful. I felt that the desire for peace is the same all over the world. I am happy to see the hearts of the students who yearn for world peace."

IWPG Director Yoon Hyun-sook said, " We sincerely hope that the message of peace we convey will brighten children's dreams and futures. Women are important educators in the family and core members of local communities. As a group that makes up half of the global population, we should work in solidarity to ensure that peace takes root in everyday life and in the international community.

We hope that you will work together with IWPG to help establish a culture of peace in the world."

The International Peace and Love Painting Competition has been held annually in important cities around the world since 2018. The competition is one of the IWPG peace projects to spread the culture of peace to local communities, providing children and young people with the opportunity to imagine and draw a peaceful world.

In particular, this year, as a follow-up event , mentoring and mentoring programs were held in 20 cities in Korea in collaboration with local communities.

The event also saw the formation of a friendship between the two groups, and a joint exhibition was held with artists of the older generation on the theme of "Sharing a peaceful worldview that transcends generations," which received an enthusiastic response as it contributed to the promotion of discovering local talent.

This led to the signing of cooperation agreements for peace projects with approximately 70 social organizations, civic groups, companies, media, etc. IWPG plans to continue to take the lead in unearthing talent in the local community and establishing a culture of peace.

IWPG Organization Introduction

IWPG is a global women's NGO registered with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Department of Global Communications (DGC) of the United Nations Secretariat.

It has 114 chapters and members in 122 countries, and works with over 730 cooperating organizations in 66 countries.

With the vision of "achieving sustainable world peace," the organization is actively engaged in spreading the solidarity that is needed in the world, spreading the culture of peace, providing peace education for women, and supporting and promoting the enactment of the "Declaration to End War in the Global Village (DPCW)."