Peace in the World

On March 4, 2013 the Gender and Development Committee (GAD) of Peace Corps Romania, Fundatia Sensiblu and IREX/Porgamul Biblionet hosted the awards ceremony for the winners of the 2012 “ 16 Days Against Gender Violence” national competition.

Initiated on October, 2012, and now in its fourth year, the competition was a creative writing, art, photography, theatrical performance, and film competition for Romanian students. This year, the participants’ task was to positively and creatively express the theme “From Peace at Home to Peace in the World.” The competition was open to all general schools and high schools in Romania with interested students. The time period for submissions included the internationally recognized 16 Days Against Gender Violence in November and December that coincides with important international dates for women’s and human rights issues. GAD solicited creative interpretations of the theme “Peace at Home, Peace in the World” from middle school and high school students across Romania in the form of a piece of writing, a photograph, or work of art using our network of volunteers and teacher counterparts.

The campaign and competition was a collaboration between GAD, Fundatia Sensiblu, a Romanian NGO involved with supporting women and children survivors of domestic violence with their Casa Blu program, as well as being the only NGO in Bucharest working in the domain of domestic violence prevention with annual informational and public awareness campaigns and the organization Fundatia IREX/Programul Biblionet. The awards ceremony was held at the National Library in Bucharest and on display hung the art and written entries by Romanian youth.

A total of 133 entries were submitted from over 18 counties across Romania. Sixty-seven art, 39 essays, 14 poetry, and 13 film, theater and photography. Twenty two judges from 12 organizations judged the entries during the 2012 campaign which included representatives from Fundatia Sensiblu, IREX/Biblionet, GAD, US Embassy, and other organizations.

In attendance were first place winners accompanied by a parent, Fundatia Sensiblu, IREX/Biblionet, GAD Committee, staff from Peace Corps, non-government organization and community members. At the registration table, guest received a handmade martisor (a martisor is a small trinket given to women on March 1st, one of my favorite Romanian holidays! I wrote about this before here) by Daciana Ungureanu, an artist from Novaci, Gorj. The program opened with an introduction to the event by IREX/Biblionet Romania Advocacy Officer Daniela Draghici. Diplomas and prizes were awarded to first place winners and judges were recognized for their cooperation and support in the campaign. Winners of this year’s campaign received digital cameras, art supplies, a diploma and lodging and transportation to the awards ceremony in Bucharest.

To view all entries, follow the link: http://gad16zile.wordpress.com.

–After having worked on this project for so many months, I was delighted to see the final results at our awards ceremony. All of our hard work paid off by the success of this event, everything ran smoothly! Sharing this moment of celebration with the winners, their parents, member of all three organization GAD, Fundatia Sensiblu, and IREX/Biblionet was a wonderful way to conclude the project. Not to mention the fact that the Romanian counterparts that were part of GAD will be creating an NGO to run this campaign next year. The amount of success of this event and project has left me smiling for weeks– Andrea