40 cartoon “Gender Equality: Picture It!” exhibition

The three winners of the 2016 “Gender Equality: Picture It!” cartoon contest were announced on March, 1 during an official award ceremony taking place at Hanoi Women’s Museum.

The contest was co-organized by the Embassy of Belgium, the Belgian Development Agency (BTC) in Vietnam and UN Women Vietnam, in cooperation with the Vietnam Women’s Union and Museum; and with the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International, IBIS (Accor Hotels) and Thai Airways. 

During the contest, organizers received 116 drawings sent from all over Vietnam, by Vietnamese nationals aged 18 and above. This showcased a high interest among Vietnamese citizens. 

In their drawings, applicants pictured their understanding of women’s status and gender equality in Vietnam; and highlighted various gender issues in the country for example: the rise in sex ratio at birth imbalance resulting from prenatal sex selection in favor of boys, violence against women and gender stereotypes that hinder the full development of women and men.

The jury was composed of professional comic artist Ly Truc Dung, UN Women Country Representative,  Shoko Ishikawa and the Belgian Ambassador to Vietnam Jehanne Roccas. The first-prize is a study tour to Belgium, known as the “Kingdom of comic and cartoons”. Besides touristic visits in Belgian cities, the winner will meet Belgian Deputy Prime Minister De Croo and several professional artists as well as international publishing houses.

Nguyen Vu Xuan Lan, Nguyen Duy Thanh also won the Public’s Favorite Prize  and Tran Thu Huong are the top three winners together with their drawings.

Speaking at the ceremony, Jehanne Roccas, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium said: “I am happy that about half of the 116 drawings were submitted by women. The quality was so high that I thought we could never make a choice! Even without words, drawings made us laugh, think and cry”.

The contest was first organized in Vietnam and symbolically ran between the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 25 November 2015 and International Women’s Day 8 March 2016. 

During the first half of 2015 in Europe, Belgium together with UN Women (and UNRIC and the European Commission) had co-organized a similar contest.