Keep to safety rules! by Liza Semenova, 10 years

The ILO has already become a traditional partner of the annual drawing contest “Safety with the eyes of a child”, conducted by the Labour Safety Magazine with support and sponsorship of the Ukrainian State Labour Service. Labour Safety Magazine was launched by the State Labour Inspection targeting Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) specialists with articles on occupational medicine, social protection and life safety.

The drawings reflect how children see safety at work. Women working with heavy machinery, construction workers of a high-rise building, a journalist reporting amidst dangerous circumstances: contestants depict professional hazard with vivid details making a clear point. Others illustrate safe work behaviour and equipment.  Unsurprisingly, many of the drawings are about miners and mines as workplaces alluding to the risks coming along with this job, as well as to the mine accidents that had taken place in Ukraine. The pictures show abundant creativity, artistic talent, sometimes humour, grippingly illustrating how valuable and volatile human life and health is.


Anna Kvasnevska, 14 years

The contest mobilized youngsters in all but one regions of Ukraine. Contestants were divided into age categories and 207 drawings were selected for the finals. The jury was composed of the State Labour Service, the Social Security Fund, ILO, OSH experts and visual artists. Oleksandra Troshyna won the contest twice—this year she participated as a jury member.  

At the award ceremony right before Work Safety and Health Day on 27 April, 2018 nine winners from all over Ukraine received their prizes in front of an audience of school children from Kyiv. Roman Cherneha, head of the State Labour Service congratulated them and noted that the contest plays an important role in teaching kids about work safety. Children start to think about the conditions their parents spend the working hours in, and when they start working, they will already have an awareness about safety and health issues at the workplace. 

The organizers calculated that with the involvement of adults who helped the children with their artwork, about half a million people were included. Antonio Santos, OSH specialist and ILO expert was enthusiastic: “A contest like this is probably the cheapest way to build the culture of safety at work. These kids are the workers and employers of tomorrow—understanding what safe work means will stay with them forever.”


Safety first by Maria Petuschak, 14 years