JEDDAH, 28 November 2006 — Taking their certificates and posing for pictures with goodwill ambassadors Muna Abu Sulayman and Sami Al-Jaber, the students who won in the painting competition organized by the United Nations Development Program were extremely excited and proud.
At a reception at the UN building on Sunday evening on the occasion of the UN’s 61st anniversary, the UN resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih, announced the names of the winners whose paintings were displayed at the hall. The reception inaugurated a UN week with the theme of “Youth and Development.”
There was also an exhibition of photographs reflecting the historical relations between the UN and Saudi Arabia.
“It’s like a dream,” said 16-year-old Wafa Hameedaddin. She won second place for her painting of the environment. Two weeks ago, representatives from the United Nations Children’s Fund and UNDP held meetings with high school girls in Riyadh, the Eastern Province and Jeddah and announced an art competition representing the eight Millennium Development Goals set at the Millennium Summit in 2000 and which Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, crown prince at the time, signed along with 146 heads of state.
The students were asked to choose one of the set goals and paint their idea of it and the resulting paintings were creative and thoughtful. A panel of judges selected the eight winning posters for first, second and third place representing each of the eight goals and they were displayed and the winners received certificates. The paintings will be printed in a booklet and distributed.
As part of the UN week there was also a soccer game between 75 male students from schools in Riyadh with Capt. Sami Al-Jaber and eight other soccer stars on Nov. 24. At the reception, the parents were as happy and eager as their children to be photographed with Muna Abu Sulayman and Sami Al-Jaber.
The first place winner for her painting on improving the health of pregnant women was very happy when told she had won. “I put some thought into the painting and I wanted to send the message that we should create a suitable and healthy environment for pregnant women for the sake of their babies,” said 15-year-old Madawi Al-Saleh. Her painting features a pregnant woman standing against a black background. Her friend Hadeel Madani won second place for a painting on combating contagious diseases.
“The idea for the painting came to me immediately and it took me a day to finish it. We didn’t have a lot of time. With the eye in the painting I wanted to say that sometimes society’s view of these people is sympathetic but it is unable to help them,” said Madani.
