The Awards Ceremony for the Cartoon Contest on Climate Change was held on Saturday 6 March 2010 at the British Council Auditorium from 3.00 p.m. onwards.
The event was graced by veteran cartoonist Camillus Perera who was the chief guest, Gill Westaway – Country Director of the British Council and Michal Boncza Ozdowski – trustee of the Ken Sprague Fund UK, distributed awards and certificates to winners, highly commended and commended cartoonists.
The Cartoon Contest on Climate Change was organized by the British Council in partnership with the Ken Sprague Fund UK as part of the British Council’s Low Carbon Futures Project which focuses on mitigating the effects of climate change in an urban environment. It was an opportunity for creative youth to voice their concerns with cartoons as their medium.
The contest was open to all Sri Lankan citizens from 18 to 35 years. The participants could submit entries under the themes of drought and water shortage, deforestation and rain forest destruction, melting of the ice caps, role of industry in polluting the atmosphere, devastation of our seas and disappearance of marine life and climate change in an urban environment.
Out of the 400 entries received in November 2009, the top 40 (shortlisted entries) were selected by a panel of eminent cartoonists, science communicators, climate change consultants from Sri Lanka and the UK. Out of the Top 40 the judges selected the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners and highly commended and commended cartoonists.
Mr. Michal Boncza Ozdowski
Born in 1948 Michal spent the first twelve years of his life in Argentina, the following twelve in Poland and the rest, so far, in Britain. As a result he has a three-way melancholy in place of a proper sense of belonging.
He trained, in Poland, as a fine art painter and poster designer. Almost his entire career has been spent as a graphic designer in service of the non-commercial sector including NGOs, Global Union Federations, educational establishments and charities. In the 70s and 80s, as a volunteer, he designed campaigning posters for Latin America solidarity organisations in London.
As an impromptu cartoonist Michal contributed regularly, in the 90s, to a London based monthly Noticias (News) published in Spanish for the Latin American community in Britain. He has helped produce innovative graphic novel cum strip-cartoon style, gritty and accessible presentations of union policies for the ICEM and PSI union federations.
As a trustee of the Ken Sprague Fund he has, with John Green, developed the Fund’s bi-annual international cartoon competition, currently in its third edition. Michal also teaches, part-time, on an access to university media and communications course at the further education College of North West London.
Mr. Nalaka Gunawardene
Trained as a science writer, Nalaka Gunawardene has been associated with print and broadcast media in Sri Lanka and Asia for over 20 years. He has variously been feature writer, op ed essayist, radio presenter, TV host, documentary producer and journalist trainer. He continues to juggle many of these roles, while also blogging, tweeting and occasionally moonlighting as a media researcher and conference speaker. Nalaka is Director of TVE Asia Pacific, a regionally operating media foundation that produces and distributes educational TV content on development and social issues.
He is also a trustee (and vice chairman) of the UK-based charity Science and Development Network, which operates the global website SciDev.Net.
Mr. Wasantha Siriwardena
An Editorial Cartoonist, the winner of the Best Cartoonist Award at the Journalism Awards organized by the Editors' Guild of Sri Lanka last year. He has won the Award twice previously. Having started his career as a freelance Cartoonist in 1989, Wasantha contributed to The Sunday Times, Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa newspapers as an Editorial Cartoonist. At present he is a Deputy Editor of The Nation and The Bottomline newspapers published by the Rivira Media Corporation of Sri Lanka. He is also a well known Graphics Journalist, the pioneer in introducing InfoGraphics, or the medium of Graphic Journalism, to Sri Lankan newspapers. He has won the hearts of readers with his attractive and informative graphics on battle maps, newsworthy incidents, sports events and personal profiles.
Mr. Nimal Perera
Mr Nimal Perera holds his basic degree in science while his post graduate studies including qualifications on environment energy and pollution control, he is also a Certified Energy and Environmental auditor with About 20 years experience in Industries. He is an UNIDO / UNEP certified trainer on Energy, Environment and Climate change related issues. Currently he works as a freelance consultant on Energy, Environment, Productivity and Climate change and is the Managing Director – EcoPro Technologies Mr. Nimal perera is the Vice President of the Sri Lanka Energy Managers Association. He is a National Consultant on GHG Inventory development to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources – Climate Change Second National communication Project. He is a member of the Resource panel in National Cleaner Production Centre and Sustainable Energy Authority and senior resource / trainer to National Productivity Secretariat on Green Productivity.
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