Twenty paintings featuring Vietnamese people and landscapes drawn by children in central Asia and Eastern Europe are on display in Russia’s Kremlin Palace.
The drawings were selected from 356 submissions to a painting contest about Viet Nam and Russia, which targeted children between 2 and 16 from Russia, Uzbekistan, Slovenia and Serbia.
Among these pictures are “Forever Young” by 14-year-old Mamleeva Mila, “Mother and Children” by 16-year-old Ivanova Dapia, and “Happy Winter” by 9-year-old Nguyen Tuan Dat.
The contest was organised by the Russia-Viet Nam Friendship Association from October 2015 to celebrate the countries’ 65-year ties. Nine children won the competition and five of them won a trip to Viet Nam.
According to Regina Udarena, a member of the association, the contest has shown Russian children’s interest in Viet Nam, a faraway land that not all locals know about. The young painters mostly looked for drawing materials in books and on the internet.
She added that more competitions of this kind should be organised to increase mutual understanding.