Ethiopian children in the making of their dream car
By Tibebeselassie Tigabu

The 5th Toyota Dream Car Art painting Contest kicked off this month under the theme of ‘Your Dream—The Car of the Future’ for children aged 15 and below.

Organized by Toyota Motor Cooperation, around 200 contestants have registered and are ready to take part in painting their dream cars.

On their first meeting, familiarization process, on November 26th Sajin Assefa Mezgebu from Addis Ababa Traffic Police office gave the children a lesson on road safety from the basics, how to cross the street and the colour coding of the traffic lights.

According to the statistics many children die as a result of traffic accidents and to curb the death rate numerous awareness raising campaigns are carried out in the country and this is also part of that awareness program.

The children also expressed their thoughts on their dream cars and some of their ideas were refreshing, a dolphin car, a car which can submerge in water, dragon car, horse car…

The contest aims at creating an opportunity for children through drawing pictures of their ‘dream cars’ to develop their interest in cars and further understand the joy and importance of having a dreams and goals.

“This contest will enable them to understand what dreams are about in general and also to teaches them to be persistent in order to attain their dreams,” states Sofanit Aklilu, senior marketing and promotion officer of Moenco.

The children who are grouped in three categories, under 10, 10-12, 13-15 years of ago, will start their first drawing today.

For the following five weeks the children will use their imagination, learn how to use brushes, to combine colors and finally three winners from each group will be identified by a jury which is comprised of teachers from Addis Ababa School of Fine Arts.

The 15 children will be awarded with educational materials and winning entries in each category will be submitted to the international contest which will be held in Japan on June 2011.

In the final contest in Japan, around 64 countries will participate. In the past, between the first contest (2004) and the fourth (2008), Toyota Motor Corporation received approximately 60,000 entries.

In addition, Akira Toriyama, the world-renowned creator of the Dragon Bill, animation series, and TMC President Akio Toyoda will select entries as winners of the Akira Toriyama Prize and President Toyoda Prize from among the bronze, silver, and gold prize-winning entries. Prizewinners will be invited to attend an award ceremony to be held in August 2011 at TMC headquarters in Japan.

The winner is, Rowan Spracklen From Ethiopia. Congradulation!!!! Rowan and his Family..
Babytalk magazine's 10th annual search found cutie Rowan Spracklen.GMA and Babytalk Magazine Cover Contest Winner Rowan Spracklen Announced - ABC NewsGood Morning America" viewers from across the country logged on in record-setting numbers to cast 16,000 votes for the 14-month-old baby from Erie, Pa. 

Babytalk editor-in-chief Ana Connery revealed the November cover live on "GMA" and Rowan and his parents, Mia and Adrian Spracklen, were on the set in Times Square when they learned Rowan was the winner.