The “Your Own Space Mission” competition for children and young people has already announced its winners in Chile.
With the aim of promoting the participation of women in matters related to space, science and technology, the Chilean entity Rockets4All, in support of the Space4Woman program of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, launched in July the contest “Your own space mission”, which seeks to encourage the interest of children in the world of science, under the perspective of gender equity in space matters.
Children and young people between the ages of 7 and 17 participated in the contest. They had to design an original patch that involved the role of women in space, identify the name of the mission together with a story that highlighted the importance of space for human life and why it is relevant that the activities are gender equitable.
In addition to Chile, the initiative is being carried out in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. In Chile, the contest received support from the Fundación Impulso Inicial of the Luksic Foundation, which financed 3 notebooks for the first three places in each category: “Infantil A” (7 to 9 years and 11 months), “Infantil B” (10 to 13 years and 11 months) and “Juvenil” (14 to 17 years and 11 months).
“The purpose of the contest is to bring boys and girls closer to talking about space through the arts and to reduce the gender gap in the areas of science and engineering, looking towards the stars. We believe it is very important that everyone is involved in this kind of topics, especially in a country where the sky is unique to discover the universe. We want girls to be motivated so that they can also lead in these areas. This is an invitation to dream and that we can do great things,” says Carla Muttoni, founder of Rockets4ALL.
In Chile, the organizers have already announced the winners of the contest, who won over the jury with their originality, clarity and artistic harmony in their story. The representatives belong to the communes of Santiago, Coihueco, Combarbalá, Calama, Chillán and Ovalle and will be awarded this Friday, September 11 via Zoom.
“We are proud and happy to be able to support such an integral cause. Chile is a country that has many advantages for astronomy and it is important that girls and boys in our country can dream of working in scientific careers. In addition, today there are several pending challenges regarding the gender gap and at Impulso Inicial we want to contribute to reduce it”, says Cristina Birrell, Executive Director of Fundación Impulso Inicial.
Now the winners from each country will compete against each other for first place in Latin America at the awards ceremony to be held on October 9, during World Space Week. The winning patch will be sent to Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), with the aim of raising the voice of the region’s children at the United Nations.
