The Dayo Keshi Literacy Prize for children storytelling initiative has awarded prizes to the top three winners in the maiden edition of storytelling competition held in Abuja.
Coordinator of the initiative, Mrs. Dayo Keshi, who is also president of AfriGrowth Foundation, presented the prizes to the three winners of the competition; Ifeanyichukwu Alum from Rosa Mystic Academy, Elijah Dayisi from Local Education Authority Primary School, Azahayapi and Joan Ogeh from Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Model School, who came first, second and third respectively.
The award recipients came along with families and friends.
In addition to the prizes, school bags, story books, exercise books and hampers were presented to the participants.
The top three contestants also went home with cash prizes of N25, 000.00, N15, 000.00 and N10, 000.00, respectively.
Mrs Dayo Keshi pointed out that the submissions from all 119 participants were very impressive despite the challenges of COVID-19 particularly the lockdown period which informed the competition as a way to engage pupils while at home.
“Videos submitted by contestants were generally informative, impressive and phenomenal, so choosing the top 10 winners wasn’t an easy task for the judges.
I encourage children to always strive to bring out the best in them by reading to build their knowledge and working towards coming on top. Look beyond the prizes and recognition received as the competition transcends beyond award of prizes but more importantly, the lessons learnt and exceptional efforts they have made,” she stated.
According to the initiator, the initiative which is part of the Library Literacy Programme of the foundation, has since its inception established 41 libraries and provided instructional materials in schools in communities around Nigeria. Under this programme also is an annual reading competition to assess overall impact of library programme which was done online this year.
She said school children of ages 8-10 and residents in Nigeria were invited to develop and tell a short stories, in a captured video for duration of 3-5 minutes and sent to thier platforms between August 1, 2020 to August 22, 2020, leading to the selection of top 10 in the maiden edition.
Keshi, while congratulating all the children that participated in the competition, disclosed that pupils in 4th to 10th positions drawn from different parts of the country would also be given consolation prizes.
