WINDHOEK - I Am the Key Children Media has announced the top three winning stories online for the Namibian Children Writing Competition.
In the Sub Junior Category, Nandinda Grace (9) won with the story on The Importance of School (How Maria becomes Teacher). Vogel Cherise Tamia (10) won with the story of The Gifted Girl in the Junior Category, while Movirongo Nguvitjita (13) won with the Olufuko Princess story.
This year, the competition attracted 125 entries. I Am the Key Children Media encouraged participants to take part in the Namibian Children Writing Competition by actively engaging via social media. They posted flyers and posters announcing the opening of the competition on all their social media platforms, which included Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Organisers also actively posted the same posters and flyers repetitively throughout the competition, encouraging participants to start writing early and to be creative.
Shinime Shiivula Primary School from the Oshana Region topped the list of entries, with 30. “All submissions were wonderful, very creative. It is reassuring to see the untapped potential of Namibian children,” says Eslien Tsuses, the project manager for the competition.
The competition is a great opportunity for kids who want to not only express themselves but also want to become authors in their own right. Currently only the first prize winners are informed. The results of the competition will be officially announced at an awards ceremony on April 6 whereby they will award the Best School, announce the second and third prize winners in each category, and give away a prize for the Most Inspiring Story, not necessarily the winning story.
Namibian Children Writing Competition is aimed at promoting literature in Namibia, and to harness the creative potential of the Namibian child. It was also created with the intention of creating role models as well as enable kids to gain a higher sense of self-awareness and self-confidence academically and socially. The competition also aims to benefit kids by enhancing their writing skills, and for them to win cash prizes and a publishing contract with I Am the Key Children Media.
Founder of the competition, Dalah Hapulile, says they are busy illustrating the books of the winning stories, and they have identified the characters. “We are now busy bringing the stories to life. There were various factors that we looked at when we selected the stories. We looked at originality, an element of Namibia, the storyline (how it was structured) and the message in the stories,” says Hapulile.