TEHRAN – The first edition of the Kerman International Children’s Painting Festival has announced winners in various categories.

The southern Iranian city of Kerman, which has been selected as a child-friendly city in a UNICEF pilot plan, organized the children’s painting competition to acknowledge the choice.

In the section dedicated to children between 5 and 8, the gold medals went to Parmis Khajui, Taha Safa and Maysa Vafa, all from Iran.

Fatemeh Esmaeilzadegan, Hadis Hajhashemi and Asal Shah-Hosseini, all from Iran, won the silver medals in this category.

Arvin Fuladvand and Anita Rafat from Iran and Yup Pin Alexandra Lau from Hong Kong garnered the bronze medals.

The gold medal winners in the 9-11 age group are Hope Khmara from Belarus and Ilia Shahi and Aram Teimuri from Iran.

The silver medals went to Yun-Chieh Fan from Taiwan, Isabel Chan from China and Fatemeh Abiri from Iran, while the bronze medals were given to Radvin Kordzanganeh from Iran, Semyon Guretsky from Belarus and Kitti Makai from Serbia.

Sofia Mikhina from Russia, Elena Omidgollu and Fatemeh Khashei from Iran won the gold medals for children between 12 and 15.

Artem Proshin from Russia, and Paria Nabizadeh and Yeganeh Qadaki from Iran received silver medals, and bronze medals in this section were presented to Maedeh Bidaki, Mahya Abui and Zahra Panahi from Iran.

Children with disabilities in three age categories were also honored.   

Angelo Chan from Hong Kong won the gold medal in the section for children between 5 and 8. The silver medal was given to Mirra Tataush from Ukraine, while Kristina Gusarova from Russia received the bronze medal.

In the 9-11 age group, Dilinur Abdullayeva from Uzbekistan, and Aiste Lelenaite and Deimante Petkute from Lithuania won gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.

The gold, silver and bronze medals in the 12-15 age group went to Hristiqna Iordanova from Bulgaria, Orlando Reyes Rodriguez from Cuba and Lilia Martynova from Ukraine.

A jury of children also selected winners in the three age groups.

In the first group, the gold medal was given to Eliska Illova from Slovakia, while the silver and bronze medals went to Nika Papac from Serbia and Julio Cesar Maura Merrero from Cuba.

Sofia Litvinova from Kazakhstan, Raha Vadudi and Nazanin-Zahra Saljuqinejad won the silver and bronze medals in the second age group.

In the third age group, Diba Arabpur from Iran, Maria Kolechenkova from Russia and Hojjat Elhambakhsh won the silver and bronze medals.

Kerman and 11 other Iranian cities were selected as pilot cities for UNICEF Child-Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) last June to roll out the global CFCI program in Iran, UNICEF previously reported. 

The other cities selected are Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz, Gorgan, Hamedan, Mashhad, Rasht, Semnan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Tehran and Yazd.

Photo: Painting by six-year-old Iranian girl Parmis Khajui won the gold medal at the Kerman International Children's Painting Festival.
 
MMS/YAW