Once again, Sadhu Vaswani Center, Colon, Panama organized a drawing competition on the topic "Compassion towards Animals". The competition was open to all primary level school children of the Government schools. The purpose was to create compassion, love and respect towards animals in the hearts and minds of these young children, and their parents, families and friends who had accompanied them.

About 15 schools participated, each school sent about 30 students and one teacher.

Along with the competition there were murals and displays (translated in Spanish) of:
1) Famous vegetarian Singers, and Actors,
2) Famous vegetarian Personalities,
3) Famous vegetarian Philosophers,
4) Famous vegetarian Sportsmen
5) Thoughts by famous vegetarians
6) Biographies of Sadhu T.L. Vaswani and Dada J.P. Vaswani
7) Thoughts on vegetarianism by famous personalities.
8) Article about activities of the Sadhu Vaswani Mission Pune, and Sadhu Vaswani Center, Colon, Panama.
9) Articles written by doctors like "Why you dont need meat" and "Why we should all be vegetarians" explaining away the misconceptions most people have about animal origin protein and meat being essential for a healthy body.
10) Universal Declaration of Animal Rights which has been ratified by the United Nations General Assembly.

DVD players played a couple of short documentaries showing the cruelty in Slaughterhouses and the cruel way animals are treated on their factory farms and on their way to the slaughterhouses. These created a big impact on the young impressionable minds, who were unaware where their meat came from or how much suffering was caused to these animals so that they could enjoy their meals.

After the competition, while the judges were picking the winners, there were talks by members of the Indian and Panamanian community on the importance of vegetarianism on all the aspects of body, mind, karma, environment etc. A small humorous skit was played by the youth of the Sadhu Vaswani Center, on how one youth gets became a vegetarian after realizing the suffering caused to the animals.

Meatless day pledges were also collected from the audience and the participants of the competition.

All the participants were given snacks.

Lots and Lots of huge prizes were given away to encourage and thank the participants. Each participant also received a certificate of participation.

The judges were important personalities of the Indian and Panamanian community. After the program, they were all treated to home made Indian Vegetarian feast, which they all appreciated a lot.