Our Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Children ESSAY AND ART CONTEST has just been announced. The theme for this year is Seasons of Transformation & Triumph | Temporada de Transformación y Triunfo. We hope it will help prompt many farmworker kids to tell their story so we can share it with the world, and in doing so, further their cause! Guidelines can be found on our website at https://afop.org/cif.
Here at AFOP / Children in the Fields, we consider every person who enters our contest a winner. Every year, approximately 150 farmworker children overcome many obstacles to enter our contest – obstacles that other children don’t experience at all. First of all, to know about the contest is already a bit of a challenge. Though we send out the announcement as broadly as possible, many farmworker kids do not have wifi or the necessary technology to be connected (as we have already seen in the rolling-out of “distance learning” for farmworker children during the Coronavirus).
Secondly, those who enter our contest often need the support and guidance of a grown-up either in their family or at school who can help them get their entries into the mail on time – for example, a migrant ed teacher. This year, with many students across the country already home from school – the rest of the 2019-20 school year essentially canceled due to COVID-19 – many more farmworker kids may not have that teacher as a resource.
Thirdly, like all children, farmworker children often need key heroes in their lives who inspire them to doggedly pursue their dreams regardless of the obstacles in their path. Fortunately, many farmworker families are tight-knit and a source of migrant kids’ strength. We receive testimony to that fact in almost every single essay we receive, and in the artwork, too. Remember Julieta’s breath-taking drawing from 2019?
The sad fact is, that, as many farmworker kids as enter our contest, many more are out working in the fields who have already resigned themselves to farmwork being their destiny. We run the contest for their sake, too – using the voices of a few to advocate for all.
The Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Children Essay and Art Contest runs from April 1st to July 15th. All children from migrant or seasonal farmworker families between the ages of 10 and 18 are qualified to enter and to be considered for monetary prizes. But make sure you use the application form for 2020!
Please do what you can to support the contest by sharing our announcement far and wide. For more guidelines and information visit our website HERE, and get in touch with our team at any time.
Like this blog? You might also enjoy these:
https://afophs.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/farmworker-child-spotlight-emily-washington-state/
https://afophs.wordpress.com/2019/04/03/cifc-contest-behind-the-scenes/
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