OREANDA-NEWS. Panasonic Corporation announced the seven finalist schools representing seven countries for the Panasonic Kid Witness News (KWN) 2014 Global Contest. The Grand Prix winner will be announced in October at a global awards ceremony to be held in the United States, where the program originated 25 years ago.

KWN is a hands-on video education program Panasonic operates as part of its efforts to support education of future generations. The company provides video cameras and other equipment for video productions to elementary and middle schools participating in the program. Currently, some 10,000 children and teachers around the world are taking part in the program. Since the program began in the United States in 1989, more than 170,000 children have participated to date.

The KWN program is also a competition that honors the video works created by children every year. To produce videos, students choose a theme on their own and handle everything from planning and scripting to filming and editing. This year's KWN Global Contest saw 548 schools from 23 countries and regions take part in the program by submitting five-minute videos. Under the broad theme of either ecology or communication, themes varied from war and famine to environmentally friendly energy as well as problems children face in school such as bullying and impact of social media. Synopses of the seven Grand Prix nominees are shown on the following page.

In commemorating KWN's 25th anniversary, the KWN Global Awards Ceremony this year will be held in the U.S., the birthplace of the program, at the headquarters of Panasonic Corporation of North America in Newark, New Jersey on October 15.