Showbiz Reporter
Young Zimbabweans are being invited to enter this year’s DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, an international essay-writing and poster-designing contest that has in the past, been won by local students.

Liz Dziva, publicity and public relations manager of MultiChoice Zimbabwe said organisers were calling on entries from students aged between 14 and 19 years for the 2017 competition that is focused on stimulating an interest in the use of satellite technology to enhance African lives.

“This is a competition that is open to young people across Africa, and is one in which Zimbabweans have had particular success over the past few years, with winners and runners-up in the two different sections of the event,” Dziva said.

Essay and poster designs must be based on the following topic: “It’s 60 years since the first satellite – Sputnik – was launched, sending out the unique and well-known ‘beep, beep, beep’ signal”. Looking back at this historic moment, students must write an essay or design a poster depicting how satellites have launched humankind into the 21st century and acted as a unifier.

Essays should be between 1 200 and 1 400 words in length, while poster entries should be of A1 size.

“This competition is open to all secondary-level students with an appetite for technology. Entry forms are now available at MultiChoice offices and copies can also be downloaded from www.dstvstarawards.com” said Dziva.

The competition is judged at national and international levels, with winners and runners-up in both categories.

Selected by a jury from what is again likely to be thousands of entries from across the continent, the overall international essay winner will be eligible for a once-in-a-lifetime trip for two to Paris to visit Eutelsat satellite facilities and thereafter travel to the Caribbean to view a rocket being launched into space.

The winner’s school will receive a DStv installation, including a dish, TV, decoder and free access to the DStv Education package. The winner of the poster section will win a trip for two to MultiChoice’s offices in South Africa and thereafter visit the South African Space Agency at Hartbeesthoek. The winner’s school will also win a DStv installation, including a dish, TV, decoder and free access to the DStv Education package.

Entries close on February 12 with winners set to be named at a ceremony that will be held by the end of April.

Now in its seventh successive year of running, the competition stemmed from a view by MultiChoice Africa and Eutelsat that science and technology education should help young minds in their quest to positively change their world.

“This joint initiative has inspired innovative thinking among a new African generation. The collaboration has also created a meaningful engagement with students, the academic community and the scientific world and what has been very exciting has been the fact that, since the start of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards competition in 2011, thousands of students have taken part in this unique competition.”

The 2014 international essay winner was then 18-year-old Joseph Mahiya of Hellenic International Academy in Harare while the following year’s international poster winner was then 19-year-old Mallon Marume of Mutare Boys’ High School.

Each year there have been winners at national level, all of whom have received prizes from the competition organisers. Other winners have come from Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria.

 

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