The awards ceremony for the "SCO Junior Culture Ambassadors" Story-telling Event was held in Beijing on Monday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO.

Held by China Soong Ching Ling Foundation (CSCLF), Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation Commission of the SCO (GNFCC SCO) and China International Youth Exchange Center, the event started in May. It collected more than 130 short videos from children of SCO countries about cooperation between SCO members from their own perspectives.

After online voting and an evaluation by judges, 18 children were awarded as SCO junior culture ambassadors.

According to Hang Yuanxiang, executive vice-chairman of the CSCLF, they want to build a platform where children from various countries can communicate, and thus they will become a new generation who can learn from and know each other. He hopes the award-winning junior ambassadors will continue to tell stories of their own countries and the SCO, and learn more about the upcoming 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

"It is the tradition of SCO countries to care about young people's growth," says Cui Li, vice-president of the GNFCC SCO. "This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the SCO, and people share a stronger wish for a better life. Standing at the starting point of the third decade, the SCO will have better prospects, unleash new drivers for win-win cooperation, and write a new chapter in cultural exchanges."

According to Fu Zhenbang, vice-president of the All-China Youth Federation, "It is the common aspiration of children all over the world, including the SCO countries, to share a bright future with peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom. Let us join hands to promote mutual learning, exchanges and cooperation among SCO youngsters. And let us all embrace and build the world with an open and cooperative mind."