Time for Change - 2021 IWC Drawing Competition
Giving a child access to sport can change their lives. This has been at the heart of the work of Laureus Sport for Good for more than 20 years.
For 15 of those years, Laureus has worked with IWC Schaffhausen to also give young people a chance to combine sport and art – changing lives and inspiring others.
The IWC Watch Drawing Competition invites participants from more than 250 Laureus-supported community sports programmes around the world to create designs on a given theme. The 2021 edition is built around the theme ‘Time to Change’ – highly suitable given the changes the world has seen in the last 18 months, and a way for the children of the programmes to channel and manifest some of the challenges they themselves have experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
This opportunity to use art as an outlet perfectly compliments Laureus’ use of sport as a tool to engage children and young people, bringing them confidence, resilience and team spirit, health and friendship. Depending on the programme in question, they also find education, safe spaces and health advice.
This year’s three finalists – announced this week – include entries from Vanshika – a participant from Slum Soccer in Mumbai, India; Ismael from Colombianitos in Bogota, Colombia and Jatin from EduKick, also in India.
Each of the drawings has a charm and a confidence and message far beyond the years of the finalists (aged 12, 13 and 15 respectively) and demonstrate a sensitivity and awareness of the world around them. Vanshika has focused on the environment – a new, clean world powered by renewable energy; Ismael sees a world supported by people of different colours and background working in unison while Jatin see people from all backgrounds brought together.
Although there can only be one winner, the success of these three young people in reaching the final is already life-changing and the public can vote on their favourite moment on www.laureus.com until 31st August.
The winning artist will be presented with a special prize and their programme supported by a donation from IWC Schaffhausen to help them continue their inspirational work.
The competition is a perennial favourite of the young people in Laureus-supported programmes around the world. Over the years, winners have come from a wide range of backgrounds and programmes but they all have one thing in common: creativity and inspirational skill.
It’s appropriate that these two attributes – in the final stage of the process – are painstakingly replicated on the reverse of a special edition IWC watch, also created with creativity and skill, and sold to raise funds to support Laureus Sport for Good’s global work.
It’s true to say that through the IWC Watch Drawing Competition, Everyone Wins.
