Winners announced for UNHCR National Student Contest on climate crisis and refugees
The winning poster entitled "Our home is where the environment is full of life!" by the Arsakeio Kindergarten of Patras. Created by Ioannis Giannakopoulos, Dimitris Baltumas, Alexis Karcoulias, Phoebus Panagopoulos, Andreas - Odysseas Mazarakis, Antonis - Marios Konstantinidis, Angelos Kanellopoulos, Evangelia Koulaxis, Mariam Nikolopoulou, Haris Mitrolia, Angeliki Vasilopoulou
On the occasion of World Environment Day, marked every year on 5 June, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is pleased to announce the results of its 26th National Student Contest, on the theme “Tomorrow is now! Climate crisis and forced displacement!”.
During the current school year 2022-23, the Contest called students from all educational levels to get informed, discuss, exchange views and proposals for change and action against the intensifying impact of the climate emergency, which disproportionately affects the most vulnerable communities worldwide, refugees and other forcibly displaced people.
More than 1,800 students, including many refugee children, participated in the Contest, speaking up for the defining crisis of our time through their artworks. Children from 40 locations across the country, from Chios island to Polykastro in Kilkis and from Evros to Northern Evia villages that were ravaged by the wildfires in 2021, created unique sketches, posters, collages and comics, expressing their thoughts and vision for the future of our shared home, our planet.
Students from primary and secondary schools, second chance schools and NGO centres supporting the education of refugee children participated in the Contest, which was held online with the authorization of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. The Contest’s Evaluation Committee had been assigned the difficult task to assess all the works on the basis of relevance, originality and creativity, resulting in the winning entries per school level.
The winning entries
In the Kindergarten category, the winning work is a group entry from the Arsakeio Kindergarten of Patras. With their poster entitled “Our home is where the environment is full of life!” the students aimed to show that people who leave their homeland behind carry with them their dreams and hopes for a better life.
The group collage “A sea full of sorrow” from the 6th grade of the Primary School of Pefkohori, Halkidiki, won the prize in the primary education category. After studying the situation faced by the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, which are at risk of sinking, the children decided to use their collage to call on all governments to work hard on tackling global warming, because “today it’s the Marshall Islands, but tomorrow it could be Pefkohori!”
Irini Karmali, a 3rd grade student at the 5th Junior High School of Lamia and Konstantina Tsarouhidou, a 1st grade student at the 4th Junior High School of Polihni in Thessaloniki, share the prize for this school category as their entries tied. For her winning comic entitled “A Reflection of Our World,” Irini was inspired by Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and explains: “Based on the poem, I tried to portray our planet personified as a woman who has on her body a variety of flourishing organisms, i.e. a planet in its golden age.[…] The same way our world is declining due to climate change, the Garden of Eden is losing its leaves and the intense gold.” Konstantina notes in turn about her sketch “Tomorrow is now” that she wants to highlight how humans and all creatures of the world are in danger. “An animal trapped inside a plastic bottle on melting ice. The future is uncertain, our nature is in danger, our planet is in danger…”.
Young Shahram Alami, a third-grade High School student who attends SolidarityNow courses at the refugee accommodation site in Serres in parallel with his school, chose with his winning sketch “Wildfire” to talk about a natural disaster that causes floods and the elimination of natural resources and to remind the effects of amplifying global warming across the planet.
The work entitled "A sea full of sorrow" by the 6th grade of the Primary School of Pefkohori, Halkidiki. Creation: Stylianos Miteloudis, Konstantinos Safaridis, Paolo Subasi, Nikolaos Kapouranis
"A reflection of our world", work by Irini Karmali, 3rd grade, 5th Junior High School of Lamia
"Tomorrow is now!", sketch by Konstantina Tsarouhidou, 1st grade, 4th Junior High School of Polichni
"Wildfire", sketch by Alami Shahram, 3rd Grade, High School, Education Center of Solidarity Now, Refugee Accommodation Facility of Serres
The winning students, as well as their schools or support centres received commemorative gifts and home composters that turn fruit and vegetable peels or other materials into organic fertilizer. All students who participated in the Contest will receive commemorative electronic diplomas.
We would like to thank all the schools, facilities, teachers, and guardians who supported the children on their participation at the Contest and of course the children themselves for their massive participation. Special thanks, finally, to the organizations that took part this year alongside UNHCR in the Contest’s Evaluation Committee: Greenpeace Greece, Network for Children’s Rights, Hellenic Theatre/Drama and Education Network, Panhellenic Association of Arts Teachers, UNRIC – the UN Regional Information Centre (Office for Greece and Cyprus), and WWF Greece.
You may find the awarded works at: https://www.unhcr.org/gr/student-contest-22
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