The ceremony was opened by the children's choir welcoming song in Amharic, English and French languages conducted by Beteseb Academy students. The director of Beteseb Academy Mr. Desalegn Betes officially welcomed all guests and demonstrated the school’s gratitude and honor for His Excellency Karel Hejč, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Ethiopia. Students have performed different Ethiopian traditional dance, which was followed by a speech from the Ambassador. In his address to the students, Ambassador Hejč mentioned the history of the competition and importance of arts in people's lives and encouraged the students to follow the example of current and previous awarded students.

This year two students – ten years old Meron Aklilu and nine years old Emran Jemal – of the Beteseb Academy received their “Honourable Mention” certificates and various gifts from Ambassador Hejč. The ceremony ended with students demonstrating their art works to the Ambassador.

Each year, hundreds of children from all over the world participate in the International Children's Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice in the Czech Republic organized by the Lidice Memorial. The jubilee 45^th year of the competition in 2017 has been named under the theme "Travel". This year’s edition saw over 25,600 entries from more than 1,800 schools from 83 countries.  The exhibition was established in 1967 to commemorate the child victims from the Czech village of Lidice, murdered by German Nazis in 1942, as well as other children who had died in wars. The exhibition is organised by the Památník Lidice - oficiální stránka.

For more information about the International Children’s Exhibition of Fine Arts Lidice please visit the website here.