A 14-year-old Chinese schoolgirl, Tang Shuwei, received awards in Geneva Thursday in a ceremony held by the World Health Organization (WHO) for her 250-word essay in the WHO Global School Contest for ages 10-14.

The other two global winners are 7-year-old Dhruv Suri from India, who is the winner of the Drawing Contest for ages 6-9 and 17-year-old girl Bibbie Kumangai from Palau, who is the winner of the 500-word essay for ages 15-18.

This contest is held in conjunction with World Health Day on April 7 this year whose theme was Mental Health.

Around 50,000 students from more than 60 countries around the world participated in the contest.

Through this contest, WHO intended to provide children with a better appreciation of mental health and to encourage schools to reinforce or initiate efforts to promote mental health education in the school health curriculum, said Dr. Benedetto Saraceno,

Director of WHO's Mental Health program.

According to WHO report, about one in five of the world's youth under the age of 15 suffer from mild to severe mental disorders.

But most treatments are geared toward adults, despite the need for early intervention in childhood.

(Xinhua 05/18/2001)