Wife of the Executive Governor of Kaduna State, Mrs. Hadiza El-Rufai, will be delivering an address as the special guest of honour at an award ceremony to be held for the winners and finalists of the 2016 MyRainbowBooks National Creative Writing Contest for Children.
Billed for April 27 at the Merit House, Maitama, Abuja, the event will have in attendance many distinguished guests, including key stakeholders in the education sector. Mrs. El-Rufai, who was on the team of judges for the 2016 contest, will be delivering a keynote address at the award ceremony.
School owners, representatives of schools, winners and finalists of the contest, as well as their parents and friends, will also be in attendance. In addition to the many fabulous gifts and certificates that will be given to deserving students and schools, there will be a public presentation of the 2017 MyRainbowBooks’ Children’s Collection which features the best stories and poems from the 2016 contest.
The MyRainbowBooks National Creative Writing Contest for Children is annual, free-to-enter, and open to children aged five to sixteen years who are either of Nigerian origin or resident in Nigeria. Individuals may enter either a poem or short story while Primary and Secondary Schools can each make a group entry of no more than 20 different writings comprising either poems or short stories or a combination of both.
Founder of MyRainbowBooks Limited, Mrs. Isang Awah in a press release stated that the contest is organised to help develop children’s creative thinking and writing skills, and to inspire them to read more, write more, and dare to attempt great things.
“It is our way of giving back to the society,” she stated. She also added that the company regularly published the best entries in each round of contest in order to encourage the children, expose budding writers, and challenge them, and indeed all Nigerian children, to continue to hone their writing skills.
“We believe that by publishing these entries, we are creating a platform for young talented writers to be seen and discovered,” Awah said, adding “and we hope that seeing their stories and poems in print will motivate the children, and other children, too, to work harder and keep writing.”
The event, which will also feature a quiz session where students can instantly win lovely prizes, promises to be very exciting, inspiring and educative. Awards will also be given to the schools that excelled in the contest. Just as the previous editions of the contest, the 2016 contest had many entries from children, public and private schools from many of the States spanning the entire country. Naturally, the winners and finalists of the contest are also from different States across the country.
The 2016 contest was sponsored by the Education Gaps Linkage Initiative and Emerging Platform Groups, and supported by various organizations and companies including Marvelous Mike Press, Fenan Digital Prints ltd., Mattini Book Club, Hatlab Ice Cream Delite, All About Kids, Readers are Leaders Bookshop, and Book River Ltd..
The team of judges for the 2016 contest included notable persons such as Her Excellency, Hajia Hadiza El-Rufai, award-winning author Chigozie Obioma, C. C. Adetula and Nard Choi.
