TEHRAN – Award-winning Iranian cartoonist Alireza Pakdel has been selected as a member of the jury of the 2nd International Organ Donation Cartoon Competition.

The contest is organized by the Turkish Transplant Foundation and the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture and Department of Visual Communication Design at the Istanbul Medeniyet University.

Pakdel has won awards at several international prestigious competitions, including the award of success from the 31st Aydin Dogan cartoon festival in Turkey in 2014 and the Grand Prix of 43 Salão Internacional de Humor de Piracicaba in Brazil in 2016.

In 2017, the World Press Cartoon in Portugal also gave its grand prize and first prize to Pakdel. In addition, the 36th International Nasreddin Hodja Cartoon in Turkey awarded him its special prize in 2016.

The Satyrykon Legnica in Poland also honored him with its special prize in 2020.

The jury of the International Organ Donation Cartoon Competition also has Dogan Arslan, Ender Merter, Necdet Yilmaz, Alper Ozkan and Gurbuz Dogan Eksioglu from Turkey, Huseyin Cakmak from Cyprus, Jitet Koestana from Indonesia, Marco De Angelis from Italy, Pawel Kuczynski from Poland, Rudy Gheysens from Belgium and Seyran Caferli from Azerbaijan.    

Winners will be announced on October 15, while the awards ceremony is scheduled to be held during an exhibition of winning cartoons and a selection of submissions, which will be organized from November 3 to 9.

The competition aims to increase social awareness of organ donation at the national and international levels by making use of the power of art. 

More than 1 million patients around the world and approximately 26,000 patients in Turkey are waiting for suitable organs to be donated to enable them to survive through organ transplantation. 

It is hoped that more organs can be provided by increasing awareness of organ donation. The contest also intends to create a positive attitude towards organ donation.

Photo: This combination photo shows a poster for the jury of the 2nd International Organ Donation Cartoon Competition and a poster for the Turkish contest.

MMS/YAW