Accra, May 31, GNA- Participating schools in the Medicine for Malaria Drawing Competition were on Friday presented with their awards with a call on them to help spread the message of malaria prevention among the people. The drawing competition, which is the first to be held in Ghana and the fifth in Africa, gives the opportunity to school children in the primary stages to draw and paint pictures inspired by the theme of malaria and how it affects their lives.

The competition was organised by the Medicine for Malaria Venture in collaboration with the Ministries of Education and Health brought together the Flagstaff House Basic School, Presec Staff School, Akojo Basic School, the Ministry of Health Basic School and Association International Schools with a special one held for the Dzowulu Special School. Mr. Emmanuel Opare, Deputy Director, Basic Education Division of the Ghana Education Service said the competition afforded people the opportunity to choose the best out of the lot. He noted that the world today was a scene of constant competition which advanced nations were never content with what they had achieved and developing nations were also striving hard to become advanced, saying, "it was the struggle that kept the society on a march." He said, in pursuit of the main objectives of the education reform which was to lay a sound foundation for the development of manipulative inquiry and basic skills, schools were expected to fully participate in extra curricula programmes such as competitions in literary and artistic works. "Participation in these competitions offers the child the opportunity to exhibit his or her potentialities in an uninhibited and relaxed environment," he added.

Mr. Opare told the participants to count themselves lucky for being randomly selected to take part in the competition and said malaria was causing a lot of havoc in the continent and if the future generation had an in-depth knowledge of the disease, "then we would be able to minimize its effect."

He congratulated the award winners and commended the organizers for giving the children the opportunity to express themselves. Mr. Christopher Hentschel, Chief Executive Officer of the MMV said his NGO was established to discover and develop new anti-malaria drugs through effective public and private partnership with a vision to offer the world affordable malaria drugs which will eliminate the effect of malaria on people, especially children and pregnant women. He said that the reason for organising the competition was to create awareness and also educate the general public on the effects of malaria through children since they were the most vulnerable. He congratulated both the award winners and other participants, saying "you have gained knowledge which will help you develop an interest to help stop the spread of the disease". Participants and schools in the competition got colour pencils, water bottles, footballs and other educational materials whiles the winners from each school got school bags, certificates and learning materials. 31 May 08