THIRY-FOUR schoolchildren from different schools in Zimbabwe on Friday walked away with different prizes for their winning entries in the 2015 Cover to Cover annual short story competition.
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The winners from different regions were accompanied by their parents to collect their prizes at the event held at Gateway High School in Harare.
Cover to Cover is run by The Standard as part of its corporate social responsibility.
Alex Park School Grade 3 pupil, Takudzwa Chayita walked away with the youngest writer award, after penning a 180-word short story about a nurse who mistakenly placed a newly-born baby in a wrong ward.
According to the story, the mother and relatives searched every ward in the hospital until they found the baby.
Cover to Cover’s three judges, Ethel Irene Kabwato, Erisina Hwede and CJ Tamhlas’ report said different and unusual writing styles were exhibited by the students.
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Some of the stories were based on themes such as child prostitution, child marriages, incest, rape, divorce, domestic violence and ritual killings.
This year’s Cover to Cover competition was the 10th, after its inception in 2005, and since then it has encouraged many Zimbabwean children to demonstrate their literary potential through writing.
The 2015 contestants tackled eight different topics that were, It was a terrible mistake, The children could no longer play, After that his father never came back, Through a child’s eyes, The hunt, She was only 12 and pregnant, The village prophet and I badly wanted my own smartphone.
Children from rural areas tackled topics such as, She was only 12 and pregnant, After that his father never came back and It was a terrible mistake.
The participants were drawn from children at primary school level, as well as secondary schools.
Some of the schools which had several winners included Dominican Convent, Gateway and North Park. Zwelabo Secondary in Nkayi, Bulu High in Plumtree and Garanyemba School in Gwanda produced most winners in the rural schools category.
The contest was sponsored by World Vision Zimbabwe, Tika Shoes, Eversharp and Tachis Engraving.
