The first Pangaea drawing contest was held under the theme – “The Place I Want to Visit.” Children drew pictures of the places they want to visit using their imagination. The votes were being cast in October, and the results are finally in!

http://www.pangaean.org/kiacon/index.html

We are very excited to announce the winners of the First Pangaea Drawing Contest chosen by online voting! Well, the winners are…
Top Award – Miyaken (Mie, Japan) – Miyaken’s note says, “I am very very tiny on my table.” Just like his comment, imagine yourself shrinking to microscopic size and what the everyday world would be like… It would be a fun and adventurous place, wouldn’t it? Actually, Miyaken drew super tiny himself in his picture; you can see him in the left corner.

Runner-Up (Tie) – Shunta (Kyoto, Japan) and Chae Hyun Kang (South Korea) – Shunta entered this contest from the pediatric ward where he has been receiving treatment.

UBS Special Award – Nanako (Mie, Japan) – This prize was awarded by UBS, a major supporter of this contest. Nanako won a set of colored pencils contributed by UBS.

Congrats to the winners! All 4 winners will receive a prize – a drawing kit – including a set of colored pencils and a sketchbook. Surprisingly we had a large number of creative submissions, as well as of online voters. Thank you for your participation and support.

We will strive to further develop the programs that enable the hospitalized children to join our activities. To do so, we need your continued support!!! This contest is sponsored by the UBS "Kids in the Arts" Grant Program, run by UBS and Social Innovation Japan.

Hello, everyone!

A terrible cold knocked me down. I took a business trip to South Korea at the end of September. The air temperature dropped sharply on the third day of my stay, and later on I started feeling sick. I hadn't caught a cold in a while... Phew, I am fully recovered and feel relived!

I have some topics to share. First, during my stay in South Korea, I worked with our staff members, Sophia and Ally, and volunteers at the MIZY Center. I was struck not only with their hard work, but also with the well-organized activities they designed. Second, we had visitors from UBS branches, located near our activity sites, in September and October. This emerged because UBS has been supporting our projects through its grant program. Our kids were pleased to show how to create animations and share their masterpieces when the UBS staff came to see our activities in Mie, Tokyo, and Seoul. Third, we've got a helping hand from an incredible South Korean supporter. She has been playing a key role in promoting our projects in South Korea. I will continue to work hard and update you on our progress.

I've spent the long autumn nights on pondering... In October, I attended the activities held in Tokyo. The 8th grade boy whom I mentioned in the last newsletter came back to join our activities. I hadn't seen him for a year and a half;


he became more mature and creative. Giara, a Pangaea graduate, has helped our activities as a high school facilitator. Actually, holding the staff meeting after wrapping up our activity is our routine. During the meeting, Giala always shares her feedback from her viewpoints. In addition, we have three high school facilitators devoting themselves to our activities at the MIZY Center. All those high school facilitators are socially and emotionally well-adjusted, and know how to work with our participants from their experiences. Obviously, they are becoming more confident and skillful facilitators. I am deeply convinced that "global interaction" can begin with human desires - to understand others and to be understood by others - at a community level. Oh, by the way, I am off to Thailand in November. This is a short notice business trip. I will give you more details later.

Our Pangaea Ring writer for this month is Ms. Yuko Yamada. We call her "Bambi." It's been three years since she started helping Pangaea as a facilitator in Tokyo. She recently got back from Canada where she had spent a year on studying. We are very happy to work with her again!

Yumi

Hello. I am Yuko Yamada, alias Bambi. It has been 3 years since I started to participate in PANGAEA.

I was very shocked when I visited to Hiroshima and listened to the speech from a survivor of atomic-bombing. That made me start to think what I should do and what I can do for peace building. I then reached one conclusion that the approach I can take is to value peace and remove the choice of engaging in war, and not to emphasize of horrible history and make efforts to make better place. It is because the former could be inherited from generation to generation, even though they have not experienced such a horror. To make it feasible, I also realized it is necessary to work with children. So, it was lovely for me to know PANGAEA.


While I am learning International Relations at University, as is often said, I feel that it depends on people and it is exactly human relations itself. If any could face each other without stereotype and bias, though it might be a small step, it could lead the world to better direction eventually.

I hope children get over the wall of differences and learn to face to anyone mutually without prejudiced eyes through PANGAEA. At the same time, I think I would like to be a part of assistance always.

Yuko Yamada
Academic student, University of Tsukuba

Voting for the Pangaea Drawing Contest is now closed.

Many people participated in our online voting. We thank those who supported our contest!

The votes have been counted and the prize winners will be announced on this website on November 20. Please watch this space!

This contest is proudly supported by the UBS "Kids in the Arts" Grant Program, run by UBS and Social Innovation Japan.