Why am I Happy to Be in the World

Why am I Happy to Be in the World is a national anti-drug visual art project with international participation. The mission of the competition is to highlight the importance of primary prevention of drug addiction with an orientation to both legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco, medical drugs...) and illegal drugs, to strengthen young people's set of values on the principle of peer action, and to be conducive to the development of an active anti-drug attitude.

A key project of the Ministry of Culture of the SR designed for the prevention of drug addition, it is organised mainly by the National Centre for Culture in co-operation with the Office of the National Council of the SR and Športom proti drogám o z (the citizen's association Through Sport Against Drugs), with the support of the Anti-drug Fund, MC SR, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the SR. It is implemented as a national thematic competition in the visual arts, a nationwide touring exhibition of the winning works with accompanying events, and the presentation of visual art works by Slovak youth abroad. The project commenced in Bratislava in 1994. Almost 15.5 thousand boys and girls aged 14 to 18 years have given artistic expression to their attitude to drug addiction in the history of the competition. Following the original Slovak model the project is now replicated in the national competitions of several other countries (Finland, Italy, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Norway, Poland). Finalists of their competitions send their visual art works to Slovakia and the Slovak jury selects the absolute winner of their national rounds. A selection of works by domestic and foreign participants has represented the project's idea in the form of a touring exhibition in more than 459 reruns of the exhibition in Slovakia, Hungary (Győr), Bulgaria (Sofia), Austria (Vienna, UNO), Finland (Helsinki), the United States (New York, UNO), Australia (Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide, Tasmania), Norway (Oslo, Trondheim, Molde), France (Strasbourg, CE), Poland (Warsaw, Ciechanów, Poswin), Great Britain (London), Switzerland (Geneva, UNO) and Uzbekistan (Tashkent, Buchara, Samarkand, Navoi). The project has been awarded the UNO Award (Vienna, New York 1998), the Speaker of the SR National Council Award, the Deputy Prime Minister's Award of the SR Government and the Deputy Prime Minister's Award of the SR Government for European Integration, the Award of the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers for Drug Addictions and Drug Control, the Minister of Culture Award, the Minister of Interior Award, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Award (of the Slovak Republic) and the Director of the Anti-drug Fund Award.