The best photographs and videos that illustrate complementary child feeding among children 6 months to 2 years in the Americas will be awarded by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in the first ProPAN Photography and Video Contest.
The main objective of the contest, is to draw attention to the importance of adding other foods to children, once they turn 6 months as it’s determined that breast milk alone is not enough to satisfy their nutritional needs.
Institutions and individuals – whether they are professional photographers or not – of any nationality, can participate in the contest. Participants can submit up to five photographs and one video each. The contest is opened until April 30.
Here’s Damen Boviewith more details on the child feeding contest.
A jury formed by experts in child feeding from PAHO and other institutions, will select one winning photograph and video per country, which will receive a certificate and move on to compete at the regional level. At this level, the jury will choose the top three photographs and videos.
The regional winners, which will be announced on May 12 of this year in honor of Mother’s Day, will win $2,000 for first place; $1,000 for second place; and $500 for third place. Additionally, the best images will be included in a book on best practices for breast-feeding and complementary child feeding.
The topic of the contest is exclusively complementary feeding, as there is already an extensive amount of breastfeeding pictures. Some situations that could be illustrated in the photos include:-
A parent, grandparent, sibling, family member or neighbor feeding a child.
- One or more children feeding themselves.
- Best practices in complementary feeding (for example, a child eating from his own plate, instead of that of the mother).
- Food and plates of complementary food and
- A child and her caretaker enjoying the feeding process.
The photos and videos should be the photographer’s or videographer’s own, and should not have been modified by any design programs. The images should be sent in “jpg”, “tif” or “raw” format and have a resolution of at least 7 megapixels (3072 x 2304 pixels). The images can be in color or in black and white. Videos should be no longer than two minutes.
The contest is organized by PAHO through the Process for the Promotion of Child Feeding (ProPAN), which was developed jointly with UNICEF to offer ministries of health, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations a tool to plan, implement and evaluate programs to prevent malnutrition in children under the age of 2.
The Public Health School at Emory University and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contributed to the initiative, which was partly financed by the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN).
To access the contest rules and format to submit a photograph or video, please visit http://bit.ly/14pD55b. For questions, please contact propan@paho.org.
This is Damen Boviefor RTC News.
