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Special Interest

Friday - September 12, 2008

Bayer and UNEP Organize the 18th International Children’s Painting Competition:

The Search is on for the Best Pictures on the Subject of Climate Change

Winners are honored at an international event; attractive prizes to be won / More than 190,000 children from over 100 countries have submitted pictures since 1991

The 14-year-old Chinese girl Gloria Ip Tung in front of her picture, which won first prize in the 2008 International Children's Painting Competition organized by UNEP and Bayer

Leverkusen, September 12, 2008 – “Climate change: our challenge” – this is the theme of the 18th International Children’s Painting Competition, which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is organizing jointly with Bayer AG. Starting immediately, children from around the world are invited to commit to paper their ideas about how to fight climate change. Participation is open to children who will be between the ages of six and 14 as of June 5, 2009 (World Environment Day). The deadline for submission is January 15, 2009. The winner of the global competition, the two second-place finishers and the winners from the various regions of the world will be invited to take part in an international children’s environmental event in 2009 and will be honored at a ceremony held by Bayer and UNEP. Participants can also win attractive monetary and material prizes. UNEP will display the pictures at United Nations Headquarters in New York and other locations.

Since 1991, 190,000 boys and girls from more than 100 countries have submitted pictures in which they have expressed their fears and hopes about the state of the Earth. The painting competition has been an integral part of the partnership between Bayer and UNEP since 2004. Each year the two partners jointly implement this initiative as well as a dozen further environmental projects for children and young people around the world.

The most important participation criteria for the competition are as follows: the pictures must be submitted in A4 or A3 format, and the participants’ first and last name, age, address, telephone number and if possible e-mail address must be entered on the back of the submission. Participants may freely select their painting materials. The pictures must not have been entered in any other painting competition.

Paintings must be submitted by post to the appropriate UNEP Regional Office:

Europe:
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Regional Office for Europe
International Environment House
11-13 Chemin des Anémones
1219 Châtelaine-Genf
Switzerland

Africa:
UNEP Regional Office for Africa
P.O. Box 30552 00100
Room A-120
Nairobi-Kenya

Asia-Pacific:
UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
2nd Floor, United Nations Building
Rajdamnern Avenue, Bangok 10200 Thailand

West Asia:
UNEP Regional Office for West Asia
P.O. Box: 10880
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain

Latin America & the Caribbean:
UNEP Regional Office for Latin America & the Caribbean
Clayton, Ciudad del Saber - Avenida Morse, Edificio 132
Corregimiento de Ancón - Ciudad de Panamá,

North America:
UNEP Regional Office for North America
1707 H Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006, USA

Find more information at www.unep.bayer.com.

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