Pamoza awards students for SRHR poem/essay
Pamoza awards 7 students for SRHR poem/essay in Chitipa, Karonga
Chitipa, Malawi : Pamoza Tingakwaniska Youth Organisation has awarded seven students from schools in Chitipa and Karonga Districts for their outstanding performance in Poem and Essay Writing Competition on Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR), writes Emmanuel Moyo.
The students were from Wenya Secondary School, Chisenga CDSS in Chitipa, Thunduti, Nyungwe, and Iponga CDSSs in Karonga.
Executive Director for the organisation, Maggie Kadrum, said they decided to conduct the competition in an effort to empower students to use the art of writing in addressing issues of SRHR.
"This competition was aimed at boosting student's self-expression skills, developing the art of writing, and also empowering them to express issues of SRHR amongst women, girls, and boys," she said.
She has since pointed out that the competition will bridge the SRHR information gap amongst young people in schools and communities.
"Because these students are young and among people encountering SRHR problems due to cultural boundaries that we have, like considering some topics taboos, starting to talk about these topics now through writing will help them spread SRHR messages to more people comfortably," Kadrum said.
Primary Education Advisor for Chisenga Zone in Chitipa Education District, Nicodemus Msukwa, who was Guest of Honour, commended the organisation for the initiative and congratulated students for their performance.
"A vote of thanks to Pamoza for the commendable job they have done, this is so encouraging to students, and I also congratulate the students for having done well. Writing is an art, I read the essays they wrote, and they are wonderful pieces," he said.
Eniphas Mbughi, a form three awardee from Wenya Secondary School who emerged as the best student, expressed excitement and said this has encouraged and empowered him to study harder so as to pass with flying colours while using the art of writing to address issues of SRHR.
The list of awardees and their prizes includes:
Eniphas Mbughi from Wenya Secondary School was named the best student and received a medal, school fees for a complete academic year, a school bag, notebooks, and pens.
Great Kondowe from Thunduti CDSS and Diana Anderson from Wenya Secondary School were in second position, and each one walked away with a medal, school fees for a term, a school bag, notebooks, and pens, while Prosperina T. Sibale from Nyungwe CDSS was in position 3 and was awarded a medal, a school bag, notebooks, and pens.
Three students that also reached the last stage of writing are Misheck Ng’ambi from Chisenga CDSS, Joseph Mukolongo from Iponga CDSS and Faith M. Shola from Nyungwe CDSS. They have been given each a school bag, notebooks, and pens.
Other schools that participated are Ngara and Fulirwa CDSS in Karonga and Nkhumano CDSS in Chitipa but they did not make it to the competition's third (last) stage.
Last year, the organisation conducted a similar event, a music competition, to enable youths to address SRHR issues through music, and three artists and one music band from Karonga were outstanding.