Campaigner calls on Offaly schools not to enter Texaco Children’s Art Competition

A LOCAL campaigner has called on primary and secondary schools across County Offaly to refuse participation in the Texaco Children’s Art Competition, citing serious human rights concerns linked to Texaco’s destruction of the livelihoods of 30,000 small farmer families.

Under the banner 'Say No to Texaco', the campaign urges schools, teachers, and parents to reconsider promoting a competition sponsored by a multinational corporation that has been repeatedly criticised for "its environmental and human rights record internationally."

The campaigner, Tom Roche from Rhode, points in particular to Texaco’s long-running legal and ethical controversies in regions such as Ecuador, where Indigenous communities have accused the company of causing widespread environmental damage with severe impacts on health, livelihoods, and human rights. Texaco has also faced criticism from international human rights organisations over its conduct in other jurisdictions.

“Schools should be safe, ethical spaces for children,” Roche said. “Encouraging students to participate in competitions sponsored by corporations associated with serious human rights and environmental abuses sends the wrong message. We should not be normalising or laundering corporate reputations through children’s creativity.”

The Texaco Children’s Art Competition has long been promoted in Irish schools as a positive outlet for creativity. However, the campaign argues that there are many alternative art initiatives that do not involve sponsorship from companies with controversial global records.

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“Children’s art should not be used as a branding exercise,” the campaigner added. “Taking a principled stand is an opportunity to teach young people about ethics, responsibility, and human rights,” pointed out Roche.

The Say No to Texaco campaign is encouraging concerned parents, educators, and community members to raise the issue with school boards and principals ahead of competition deadlines.

At the recent request of the US Ambassador to Ireland, Roche wrote to Ambassador Walsh, giving detailed background to the plight of his friend Steven Donziger, the New York attorney and human rights defender who represented the 30,000 farm families against Texaco for what has become known as the “Amazon Chernobyl".

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