São Paulo – Brazilian children living abroad may participate in the drawing contest promoted by the Brazilian Foreign Office (Itamaraty), through the Brazilian Communities Abroad project. The theme this year is “My favourite Brazilian” and the children may draw from relatives to friends, historic or fictional characters, celebrities or even animals. “Or anything else, whatever they remember or imagine as Brazilian,” said the head of cabinet of the under secretariat general for Brazilian Communities Abroad, Adriana Telles Ribeiro.
Enrolment should take place up to Sunday, May 1st, at embassies, consulates or Itamaraty representative offices closest to the child in the country. The objective of the competition, according to Adriana, is maintenance of the connection between the children and Brazil and greater interaction between them and the country. “We know that there is a growing Brazilian population abroad,” said Adriana, referring mainly to the kids of Brazilians who are born abroad. "Government policies may interfere for these generations to have good or bad relations with Brazil,” she said.
In the last edition, the first Infant Drawing Contest, whose theme was “My Brazil”, a total of 257 children from 23 countries participated. Of these nations, five were Arab: The United Arab Emirates, Libya, Oman, Palestine and Tunisia. Adriana said that there is growing interest in the contest among families in the Arab world. Participation in this kind of initiative, she recalls, depends on parental interest. She points out cases like that in Lebanon, where the establishment of Alecrim group, a non-profit-making cultural group whose objective is to transmit the customs of Brazil to children living abroad was established. The group should promote participation of kids in the contest.
Children aged between six and 11 may enrol to participate. Each child should participate with just one drawing, a new one. It may in water colour, gouache, marker, pencil or any other medias, using the most varied of techniques, including collage, use of fabric or other materials. The work should, however, be presented on an A3 sheet of paper.
The items to be evaluated will be technique, originality and creativity of the works. The ten best drawings will be awarded and there should also be ten honorary mentions. The results will be disclosed on June 30th. According to Adriana, the awards will be editions of kids’ books and sports material, among others, donated by the Ministries of Brazil. The embassies and consulates should organize ceremonies to award the winners in their countries. In last year’s edition of the award, the first place went to Layra Pires de Brito, from Nagoya, Japan, the second to Lucas Walker, from San Francisco, in the United States, the third to Erick Krieger, from New York. The fourth place award went to Victória Matuda Abade, from Hamamatsu, also in Japan, and the fifth to Sandy Miho Tsukahara, from Tokyo.
Further information
Site: www.brasileirosnomundo.mre.gov.br
Telephone: (+55 61) 3411-8821
*Translated by Mark Ament
