The Human Services and Social Security Minister has announced the launch of its Short Story Writing Competition for young writers on the topic of “Child Safety”.
This new initiative forms part of the “Every Child Safe” campaign that was launched by Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud in September, which seeks to tighten the grip on issues surrounding child abuse in Guyana.
In a release on Sunday, the Ministry stated that the age group being targeted in the competition is 12 years old and under, with the word limit being 250, adding that entries being sent to the Ministry must be completed with the participant’s name, address, age and contact numbers.
The 10 best stories will be published in a special book produced by the Human Services Ministry and young authors with winning entries receiving prizes.
Submissions, the release stated, can be made at the Ministry’s East and Lamaha Streets, Georgetown location, or emailed to [email protected]. The deadline is November 11.
Dr Vindhya Persaud chats with some children from the age group being targeted which is 12 years old and under
Under “Every Child Safe”, a personal and consistent check-in with members of communities all across Guyana is carried out to help in identifying perpetrators and bring relief to sufferers, the release stated.
“These communities become essential partners of ours, so that wherever child abuse rears its ugly head, we will be able to know because there are people out there as our eyes and ears. Perpetrators will have the eyes of an entire community on them, so no one can escape that kind of scrutiny,” Dr Persaud has said.
This partnership will see heightened vigilance on child abuse in communities and people will now be aware of crimes that they should look out for and how they should report cases of child abuse utilising the 914 hotline and all the other avenues available to them.
Meanwhile, just recently, 25 girls who are members of vulnerable groups across Guyana were given the opportunity to write their stories and get them published under another project by the Ministry called, “The Storyboard Initiative.”
