Mayen Kuol, who goes by the stage name Kayana David is one of the Winners of the Funoon4Hiwar Creative arts competition 2022 under the category of painting/ fine art , in the individual .The 24 year-old who completed high school in Kenya in 2019, from Namachanga High School in Bungoma, Western, Kuol also won under the same category last year. Calling this as a rewarding experience he says, “ it is an honor to be among the participants for this [social cause]. I am so grateful, so excited, [and] can’t thank UNFPA enough for initiating this competition ”.
David, another winner won 200$ prize. David lives with his grandfather in Juba, and exclaimed that he could support his family through his art and gave half of the prize to to his Dad and sent the other half to support his family in Narus, a place located near the border between Kenya and South Sudan.
Another winner is 22 -year- old Cholhok Paulio Ater Kuar, a second-year architecture student at the University of Juba. Having garnered judges’ attention with her video documentary that narrates the challenges of unintended pregnancy, she expresses,
“ honestly speaking I did not expect this win. But when I was notified about it, me and my team lacked words to express our gratitude. Personally, I was overwhelmed. Me and my team had put a lot of efforts in bringing out this piece. We are grateful to UNFPA, Shaba Le Shabab and University of Juba for organizing this. Having won this prize, we are now going to embark on producing short videos to upload on different platforms with targeted messages for the youth on different topics of social cause” , said Cholhok
The creative art competition commenced in June 2022 in collaboration with University of Juba, NTLI (National Transformational Leadership Institute), and in partnership with Shabab Le Shabab, and Paranet Media Ltd. The competition focused on UNFPA’s 2022 flagship report on the State of the World Population, themed, ‘Seeing the Unseen: the neglected crisis of unintended pregnancy”. The competition ran in 5 categories of competition amongst the age groups of 10-17 years and 18-35 years age groups, (i) poetry, (ii)singing, (iii) painting/ art works, (iv) photography and (v) short videos that depict the theme. Shabab Le Shabab and Paranet Media Ltd. with support from UNFPA worked with the Juba University Committee to organize the competition, reaching to 100 schools with the messages of the report, and liaising with the University teachers and Civil Society Organizations to constitute panels of judges for the selection of the winning entries for each category.
The competition culminated on the International Youth Day by announcing the winners, in line with the celebration of the Youth Month. This year’s State of World Population Report ‘Seeing the Unseen: the neglected crisis of unintended Pregnancy’ puts a spotlight on how easily the most fundamental rights of women and girls are pushed to the backburner in times of peace and during war. It calls on decision-makers and health systems to prioritize the prevention of unintended pregnancies by improving the accessibility, acceptability, quality, and expanding quality sexual and reproductive health care and information. It urges policymakers, community leaders, and all individuals to empower women and girls to make affirmative decisions about their sexual and reproductive health and rights, family planning, and to foster societies that recognize the full worth of women and girls. For, if they do, women and girls will be able to contribute fully to society and will have the tools, information and power to decide about their sexual and reproductive health issues .
