In the youth creative competition “Together Against Corruption! Your Vision Matters”, held by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day, second-year students of the Faculty of Sociology and Law of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Diana Shybynska, Kristina Kormyshkina, Ruslana Kuzichkina and Sofia Kuzub won second place.
They presented a comic book on the topic of fighting corruption and won second place among all the participating teams in Ukraine. The winners and runners-up were awarded during the International Scientific and Practical Forum “Good Governance and Building Integrity in the Security and Defense Sector” held on December 9-10, which was dedicated to the International Anti-Corruption Day. The girls told the editor-in-chief of Kyiv Polytechnic about their participation in the competition and the work they had submitted. However, the communication took place remotely, as all of them are still studying online and live in different cities of Ukraine.
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- How did you learn about the competition of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine?
- From our teacher Yana Yuriyivna Tsymbalenko. Her idea to express her vision and attitude to the fight against corruption aroused our great interest, because this problem is extremely important for society. And we immediately decided that we wanted to participate and implement our ideas within this project. The competition was a great opportunity for us to express our thoughts and make a small but personal contribution to solving the problem of overcoming corruption.
- Who initiated the contest?
- The initiative was taken collectively. It was truly a team effort, and each of us contributed to the preparation of our joint project. We worked together, united by a common goal and a desire to contribute to the fight against corruption.
- For the members of your team, is participation in this competition a personal principled position against corruption or, above all, an opportunity to participate in an interesting creative tournament?
- Participation in the contest was an important expression of our rejection of corruption. We believe that fighting this evil is essential for us and for our country. But, of course, this does not exclude the fact that we wanted to participate in an interesting creative competition. It was also a new experience and new emotions for us. Besides, the topic itself was interesting for us as future lawyers.
- How many people and teams participated in the competition?
- In total, about 40 teams from Ukraine took part in the competition in the creative works category and about 10 teams in the video category. The teams were from different cities of Ukraine.
- How was your team formed, who performed what functions in it? Who helped with advice or anything else?
- From the first days of study, the four of us have been communicating well and implementing various projects together. Participation in the competition was no exception. As always, we decided to participate as a girl's group. In fact, all four of us were actively working and making equal efforts. We met both online in Zoom and offline. We discussed the content of the comic, jointly searched for programs to develop video sequences, and worked on pictures. As for the individual features, one of us registered the team for the contest, and then everyone worked equally.
- In fact, it was a social advertising contest that could be submitted in various forms. Why did you decide to participate in the Poster, Poster, Comic Book nomination and why did you decide to make a comic book?
- It seemed to us that this form makes it possible to express the idea as vividly as possible and accessible to a wide audience. And we chose the comic book because it combines the visual aspect with textual content. It seemed to us that this would be the easiest way to convey the message and emotionally engage the viewer, making the information easy to understand, vivid and catchy.
- How did you come up with the idea for the comic and its plot? By the way, the story you told in pictures, despite its Victorian coloring, looks quite close to our realities. So, perhaps, it is based on some personal experience or the experience of your friends?
- The idea for the comic book came from a desire to create something that would be exciting, symbolic, and relevant at the same time. We chose the Victorian coloring because it adds atmosphere and attracts attention. However, the story itself was adapted to modern realities so that everyone could see something familiar in it. Also, the comic is partly based on our personal observations of how people face life's difficulties. We tried to reflect the universality of these situations, to show that they are relevant both in the past and in the present.
- The drawings in the comic are extremely professional - you can see the hand of a skilled graphic artist. Did you use anyone's help or computer programs?
- Thank you for this assessment. The drawings were created using digital techniques. To achieve high quality graphics, we worked in specialized programs such as Chogger and Procreate. This allowed us to add detail to the drawings and make them look good. The main idea, style and composition were developed exclusively by our team.
- On the contest website, the comic book episodes are not presented in ascending order of their numbers. Is this a creative idea or a mistake by the layout designer?
- The arrangement of the comic's episodes on the contest website is a deep creative idea. We believe that such a non-linear presentation of the plot creates a special dynamic of perception, forcing the reader to actively engage in the reading process, build a chronology of events on their own, and establish cause-and-effect relationships between episodes. This technique allows you to create a multi-layered narrative where each reader can build their own sequence of getting to know the story, making the reading experience more personalized and interactive. This approach to organizing the material also emphasizes the modernity and experimentation of our project, its departure from traditional forms of storytelling, which is fully in line with the spirit of the comic book as a dynamic visual tool for presenting the story.
- And now you are among the winners. How did the award ceremony go?
- The awarding ceremony took place on December 11 in the center of Kyiv, in the conference hall of the Radisson Blu hotel. Diana Shybynska was present at the event. The works were not shown there, as the winners were announced a week in advance on the official website, so the partners and organizers of the competition had already seen them. The awards - diplomas, notebooks from Vega Telecom and Vodafone cards worth UAH 2000 to each team member - were presented by representatives of the contest organizers and Vodafone. The ceremony was held in an extremely warm and relaxed atmosphere. The light, friendly atmosphere created a special holiday mood, where each participant felt like a part of the creative community. The award came as a pleasant surprise - it not only honored our achievements, but also became a wonderful tangible embodiment of the recognition of our creative work.
- What's next: will the winners' works be distributed in any way (for example, through social media or other means), have you been promised to be involved in anti-corruption activities? Do you plan to continue participating in similar projects?
- Of course, we plan to continue participating in such anti-corruption events and competitions, as it is a great opportunity to show our creativity and contribute to an important social cause. Such activities not only allow us to develop our own skills, but also help draw attention to important social issues through art. As for the dissemination of the winners' works, we expect active dissemination of materials through various communication channels, including social media and other platforms. This will help convey important anti-corruption messages to a wider audience and raise public awareness of this issue. We are also enthusiastic about the possibility of further cooperation in the field of anti-corruption activities, as it allows us to realize our creative potential in the context of important social changes and promote active citizenship.
