In 2024 Mine Free Myanmar launched a nationwide poster contest on the theme of: The Impact of antipersonnel landmines on my community.
Artists were invited to use any medium. Text could be in any language in Myanmar.
[This image is Adult First Prize to Saw Maw Gyi of Karenni Refugee Camp 2.]


Submissions were primarily graphic images with some text, but video presentations, poetry mixed media and music videos were also submitted.
The contest opened in International Day of Mine Action, 4 April 2024 and closed on International Peace Day, 21 September 2024. Awards were announced on 20 October 2024, with a 1st prize in the adult category of 1.6 million kyat.
[This image Adult Second Prize to Naing Lurn in Rakhine State. Sign in background says ‘Welcome to our village’]
104 artists submitted works from across the country including from Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Rakhine and Shan States and the Ayerawaddy, Magway, Mandalay, Sagaing, Tanintharyi and Yangon Regions. 20 women and 17 men submitted art in the adult category, and 34 girls and 32 boys submitted art in the youth category. Artwork included submissions in Burmese, Karen and English.
[This image Adult Third Prize to Anna Lu of Mandalay Region. Dialog, Infant ‘when will Mom and Dad come back?’ Older sister ‘Never’]

This contest was supported by the Investing in Action programme of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Facebook contest site in Burmese here.

[Mixed media, painting with poem, Youth First Prize to Hele Fiona, 14 yrs, of Ayerawaddy Region]
[Illustrated Story, Youth Second Prize to Naw Th’R’Pi Kyaw, 11 yrs, of Tanintharyi Region A morality tale in Karen language (last panel Burmese translation) Summary, 3 young village friends meet in the morning, and elder comes and informs them that there will be a lesson in risk education in the village, two of the friends attend, another goes to the forest to forage for food, on seeing some unpicked bamboo shoots she goes to pick them and is killed by a mine. After the session the other two go to look for her as she hadn’t returned from the forest and find her corpse. Moral: listen to your elders.]


[Youth Third Prize, Saw Kaw Ku Phoe , 8 yrs, Tanintharyi Region. Illustration of the impacts of mines on his community, top left: immediate physical loss; bottom left: loss of land; top right: loss of income, and bottom right: loss of sense of well-being in family.]