Say no to drugs

Last week the organizers of the national literary and artistic competition themed “I say NO to drugs!” handed out awards to the winners. Children and teens from every corner of Ukraine had sent their drawings, paintings, collages, applique works, murals, wall newspapers, videos, poems, or fairytales to the editorial offices of Pryhody (Adventures), a magazine for teenagers. The participants were instructed to express their views of the problem of drug addiction. Over a six-month period the magazine editors received over 3,000 works. The jury selected the top 19 submissions, which netted the winners computers and cameras.

“All the participants were divided into two age categories: 9-11 and 12-15,” explained Liudmyla Lozova, deputy PR manager of the Foxtrot Group of Companies, one of the organizers of the competition. “In selecting the winners, the jury focused on originality and the depth of thought that the applicants revealed in their submissions. In general, each of the submitted works is proof that our children support a future without violence, suicide, and drug addiction. They expressed their feelings and thoughts via simple slogans like ‘Think about your family,’ ‘Do not kill,’ etc.”

A couple of students from a boarding school in the Cherkasy region -Yulia Sydelnykova (grade 4) and Maria Karahodina (grade 11) — won the first prize for their literary submission. The girls wrote a poem entitled “Prayer of an Unborn Child,” in which a fetus asks its mother to give up cigarettes and drugs because it wants to be born healthy.

Fourteen-year old Yaroslav Kozachuk focused on another aspect of drug addiction. He won the first prize in his age category for his ironic interpretation of the fairytale “Kolobok.” Instead of flour, the well-known character in this fairytale is made of cocaine powder.

The jury members were most impressed by a collage entitled “Let’s Make the Future Colorful,” crafted by Viktoria Kravets, who studies at an orphanage in Oleksandria (Kyiv oblast). The winner said that she wanted to use her drawings to draw people’s attention to the way drug addiction destroys people’s health, network of friendships, and families.

All the winning submissions will be published in Pryhody .