Budapest, March 1, 2017 11:00

• Magyar Telekom, BOOKR Kids, the Autistic Art Foundation and the Sustainability Media Club invites a competition for children aged 8-12 to draw characters from tales.
• Announcing the competition the inviters intend to involve children in creating a new tale, by drawing the two lead characters of the tale.
• The third character of the tale, a little boy living with autism will be drawn within the framework of the art program of the Autistic Art Foundation by young people living with autism.
• The tale will be written jointly by Lackfi János, Hungarian poet and writer holding the József Attila award and the experts of Autistic Art.
• The new tale will be available free through the BOOKR Kids Tales application, introducing in what way an autistic child is different and how to accept this difference.

Currently there are about 60 thousand children and adults diagnosed with autism living in Hungary. Autism is the congenital disorder of the brain function, impacting its basic development capabilities and prevails all through the life. This set of symptoms makes maintaining social relations significantly more difficult, hence causing significant problems also in communication. Despite the lack of external, visible signs, autism may be coupled with unusual behavior.

The purpose of the cooperation between Telekom, BOOKR Kids, the Autistic Art Foundation and the Sustainability Media Club is to grant support to children and adults living with autism in keeping in touch with each other, as well as in social communication. Understanding each other can be actively assisted through the tale as the story can outline to children in what way their autistic companion is different and how they can help in everyday life. The other important objective of the cooperation is to outline through the tale that persons living with autism are just as remarkable and loveable individuals like any of us. Community, friends and the accepting environment are equally important to them.

Lackfi János, creator of the tale said: „Approaching each other, opening up our inner world to each other – there may be hardly a nicer human task than that. Dealing with it is especially important in a case when we need to overcome a communication barrier. Like for example in case of the autistic people, who are known for having an internal world with incredibly rich and creative character.”

According to the tale’s storyline, Panka and Gyurka are siblings, visiting the same playground since their childhood. One day however they meet a new little boy, who behaves a little strange and is different from them. Inviters of the tale illustration competition expect the entry drawings of children aged 8-12, who draw the characters of Panka and Gyurka, the two lead characters. Drawings entered will be assessed by a professional jury and the tale illustrator graphic artists of BOOKR Kids will create the two lead characters based on the selected drawing. The third lead character, the little boy living with autism will be selected from among the drawings of the young people living with autism and creating in the frame of the art program of the Autistic Art Foundation.

The deadline for competition entries is March 23, 2017. Results will be announced on Monday, April 3, 2017. Upon the expiry of the competition deadline entries received will be uploaded by Telekom on its Facebook site into a public photo album, and a public award will also released based on Facebook likes. This award will be handed over to the creator of the drawing earning the most likes.

The prize of the winner of the drawing competition and the Facebook public award will be a Telekom Huawei Mesetablet each, with 6 months access to the BOOKR Kids Tale Archive, which is a children library application made especially for Hungarian children. The archive currently includes 150 interactive tales from authors like Benedek Elek and Gerald Durrell, including tales titled Pöttyös Panni and The Little Prince. The application with its interactive children tales helps in learning to read, developing memory and creativity, contributing to children developing an affection for learning.

The tale illustration drawing competition is part of the strategic partnership that Telekom signed with the Autistic Art Foundation in March 2016. Sustainability and active participation in that is a long term strategic principle for the company. Telekom pays special attention to those living with deficiencies and to being committed and taking social responsibility also in this domain. In the course of the cooperation with the Autistic Art Foundation, Magyar Telekom thrives for raising awareness about autism as a social problem and for doing its utmost with its own means to enable people living with autism to communicate with others easier, reducing the distance between them and their companions from the same age group.