"Sketches Around the World - Messages about Progress for the future of our planet", a roadshow of children's picture projects exhibits at Prague's Town Hall

Pictures by children from 23 countries present ideas on how to improve the environment and world around us.

Projects submitted as part of the Draw a Better Future contest will be exhibited in the anterooms of the Prague Town Hall conference room on 4 and 5 September. The contest is an educational initiative organised for children aged 9 to 11 by Veolia Voda, the water management division of Veolia Environnement in co-operation with UNESCO's French Committee.

Mr Henri Proglio, president of Veolia Environnement will, on the occasion of his visit to the Czech Republic, participate in the official opening of the exhibit on 4 September 2006. He is to address the students of Chaplinovo náměstí Primary School in Prague 5, whose project won 3^rd prize in the national competition.

The classes faced the task of choosing and devising specific projects that can be implemented in their environment and would bring progress (human, social or environmental), and then presenting the projects in the form of pictures and describing them briefly. As a guide throughout the competition, the children could draw on a notebook full of information and ideas for research and activities.

The winning project from each country was exhibited in Paris in the first week of June on the occasion of the World Environment Day and UNESCO's Week for Education for Sustainable Development and then in each participating country as part of the roadshow organised as a follow up to the contest. The representatives of the winning classes participated in the official unveiling of the exhibit in Paris.

The high number of participants attests to the huge appeal of the contest: this year, 2,230 children from the Czech Republic participated; the total number of participants was 33,000 children from 23 countries on 5 continents.

It is one of Veolia Voda and Veolia Environnement's priorities to instil in children and young people a sense of respect for and responsibility towards the environment through specific tasks and projects. The objective of this year's contest was to point out the relationship between the environment and health, and to arouse in the children the feeling of responsibility for their environment and the willingness to improve it.