“The municipality attaches great importance to every movement and program promoting the Child-Friendly City Initiative,” Kerman Mayor Seyyed Mehran Alemzadeh said on Sunday in a meeting with managers from a number of organizations involved in children’s issues.

He asked all the organizations to help make the competition highly effective and successful.       

This attitude can encourage the Kerman Municipality to continue the contest for future editions, he added.

“This is the first time the municipality is organizing an international contest, and we hope it can improve the world’s children’s outlook of Kerman,” he noted.

The Kerman Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance and several other organizations will be contributing to the event.

He did not give an exact date for the children’s painting contest or further details.      

Kerman and 11 other Iranian cities were selected as pilot cities for UNICEF Child-Friendly City Initiative (CFCI) last June to roll out the global CFCI program in Iran, UNICEF earlier reported. 

The other cities selected are Bandar Abbas, Ahvaz, Gorgan, Hamedan, Mashhad, Rasht, Semnan, Shiraz, Tabriz, Tehran and Yazd.

The piloting process will officially start after signing a memorandum of understanding between the municipalities of the pilot cities and the Ministry of the Interior.

According to UNICEF regulations, a child-friendly city is a city or a local community where the voices, needs, priorities and rights of children are an integral part of public policies, programs and decisions.

The vision for the global CFCI program is that “every child and young person enjoys their childhood and youth and reaches their full potential through the equal realization of their rights within their cities and communities”. 

With the support of local and national governments, NGOs, the private sector, media and universities and in collaboration with UNICEF, this initiative covers more than 30 million children in 3000 cities and local communities in over 40 countries.

It is noteworthy to mention that the UNICEF CFCI logo and brand are awarded only after the city successfully completes the CFCI Cycle. During the pilot phase, the city is not yet considered a “child-friendly city” and does not receive the logo or the official recognition.

Cities from Ukraine, Canada, Germany, England, France, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Spain and many other countries have been selected by UNICEF as child-friendly cities.

Source:Tehran Times