UNDP in Ukraine

The contest was organised by a UNDP-led "Governance of HIV/AIDS" project. Partners of the contest are Ministry of Family and Youth and Sport of Ukraine and Regional social services for families and youth.
Financial sponsorship has been provided by Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). The contest's social responsible partner was ASUS office in Ukraine.

The aim of the competition was to choose best materials which objectively expose problems of HIV, promote responsible journalism on HIV issues in regional mass-media, raise public awareness on HIV and tolerance matters.

The competition themes included: HIV prevention, healthy life style; reduction of stigma and discrimination, promotion of tolerant attitudes to people, living with HIV. A special attention was paid to promoting voluntary HIV testing, as an important tool in HIV prevention.

The contest's participants included residents from the stated regions, representing school children, students, teachers, different ages and occupations, as well as journalists frpm regional mass-media.

The works were assessed in accordance with the following criteria: balanced material, level of the theme exposition, real life examples and stories, corresponding to the target audience. In addition, the entries from journalists were assessed by the level of journalists standards, scientific adequacy and correctness of material, its imagery.

Each nomination was judged on a 5-point scale. Four top finalists were determined in four nominations. In total, 12 participants were awarded the prizes. The jury comprised leaders of NGOs and international organizations, professionals working in HIV/AIDS prevention field, and a famous pop-star Ani Lorak.

Winners, who took 1st places were awarded Asus F80 Cr notebooks by Valeriy Bazylenko, Sales Director of ASUS Technology Pte Ltd.

UNDP Office awarded Diplomas to the winners and Ani Lorak presented the winners with her exclusive signature posters. In return, the winners shared their impressions and vowed to further promote HIV prevention.

The winners of the competition are:
Best Essay Nomination
1 place. Dmytro Bondarenko, Dnipropetrovsk, for the essay titled "The 17th floor".
2 place. Larysa Revenko, Zhovti Vody, Dnipropetrovsk Region, from secondary school №10, 'Pervotsvit', literary studio, creative director.
3 place. Tetyana Nikolaychuk, Voznesensk, Mykolaiv Region, for an essay titled 'In spite of ...'

Best Journalist Article Nomination
1 place. Alyona Khavela, journalist of Novobuzsk, Mykolaiv Region, regional newpaper "Vpered", for the article is 'I want to live!'
2 place. Ruslan Podgornyi, journalist of the newpaper "Yuzhnaya pravda" for the article 'For mother not to abandon her child'.
3 place. Iryna Pavlova, journalist of the newpaper "Hryvnya ", Kherson, for the article 'To live by each day...'.

Best Photo Nomination
1 place. Anastasiya Kurilo, Kryvyi Rih, a student of the city children and youth creativity centre "Horytsvit", for the photo 'I will draw the world where children live without HIV/AIDS'.
2 place. Dmytro Syvak, Kherson city, for a series of photo posters 'Don't close inside', 'Open your eyes', 'There is always a way out'.
3 place. Mariula Danilova, Simferopol city, for a series of photo posters 'Everybody needs appreciation and support', 'There exist many gestures, but only one can stop AIDS'.

Best Poster Nomination
1 place. The collective work of pupils from a school-orphanage for children who need intellectual development correction, Tsyurupinsk city, Kherson Region.
2 place. Kherson City Centre of Youth Initiatives "Totem". Author Valeriy Vorobyov.
3 place. Roman Avramenko, 12 years, Kherson city.

UNDP in Ukraine has been grateful to Asus for the company's generous support in conducting the contest.

Asus is a leading company in the new digital era. With a global staff of more than eight thousand and a world-class R&D design team, the company's turnover for 2007 was 6.9 billion U.S. dollars. Asus ranks among the top 10 IT companies in BusinessWeek's "InfoTech 100", and has been on the listing for 11 consecutive years. Asus was also selected by the Wall Street Journal Asia as No.1 in quality and service in Taiwan.

For more information please contact Oksana Skytalinska, Governance of HIV/AIDS project: tel.: (+38044) 280-20-11 or oksana.skytalinska@undp.org.ua