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24^th September 2020 – the Middle East and North Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the education and social sectors to ensure access to learning. To adapt to this context, UNODC Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (ROMENA) and UNODC’s Education for Justice (E4J) held a regional creative reading competition aimed at actively engaging education and social work professionals, students and youth in community-based activities focused on exploring innovative ways to enable children to have learning experiences and deliver educational messages. To participate in the competition, children and youth produced videos and creative content reflecting the “Do It Like The Zorbs” story in their own way while learning about the values of respect, tolerance, integrity, justice, and fairness.

With September marking International Day for Respect and one of the main values within the Zorbs’ story being respect, UNODC hereby announces the winners of the competition who are chosen based on their submissions’ simplicity, creativity, and passion;

For the children category:

1^st Place – The Syrian Society for Social Development – Syria

2^nd Place – The Syrian Society for Social Development – Syria

3^rd Place – Rehabilitation Center, Moubadra Center – Lebanon

For the youth category:

1^st Place – The Syrian Society for Social Development – Syria

2^nd Place – Reem Abou Rabea – Palestine

3^rd Place – Batoul Ahmed Ghanem – Palestine

Such efforts helped children and youth become active champions for positive change and for actions that help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as SDG 4 “Quality Education,” SDG 5 “Gender Equality,” SDG 10 “Reduced Inequalities,” and SDG 16 “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.”