Women’s Resilience, Strength and Contributions Visualised:
Winners of the ‘Women and COVID-19’ Comic and Illustration Competition

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected women and girls across Indonesia due to existing gender inequality, compounded by social and economic fallouts. Despite these challenges, women in Indonesia continue to display incredible resilience and actively contribute to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In October 2020, WHO, UN Women, and the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, with the support of the Government of Japan, launched a comic and illustration competition to highlight the experiences of women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic and support the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

Winners of the ‘Women and COVID-19’ comic and illustration competition were  announced on 17 December 2020  in a virtual awarding ceremony and talk show.
Photo credit: WHO

Within one month of its launch, the competition received 372 original artworks by illustrators from across Indonesia. On 17 December 2020, the winners were announced in a virtual awarding ceremony attended by 180 participants.

“The inspiration behind my drawing ‘Women Head of the Household’ is my mother who is a single parent, taking the role as a mother and the head of family. As a female illustrator, visualizing the reality faced by women is a way to support them as they are playing a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Lidya Permata Sari, the winner among the 15-24 years old category.

In her address, Dr Shalala Ahmadova, Incident Manager for COVID-19, WHO Indonesia, highlighted the critical contributions that women make in the health sector, “Women have been the backbone of healthcare and in crisis. Women make up 70% of health care workers globally. Even long before the pandemic, women have been important contributors as health workers at the community level and health care facilities across Indonesia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s roles as community health workers are even more essential to spread accurate health messages and reduce stigma that may persist in society. We are happy to see that the artwork received show the breadth of women’s contribution in the pandemic: in the health sector, in the economic sector, in their communities and in the home.”