“It takes a village to raise a child”. This African proverb is true in every sense of the word. There are many ways to contribute in raising children; the leaders of tomorrow. What better way to do that than to challenge their minds through critical thinking?
To follow on this proverb, Genesis Energy Holding (GENESIS) is a proud lead sponsor of a West African-based initiative, Blooming Minds Young Writers. This initiative is aimed at raising young African leaders by recognizing and rewarding children with abilities in writing and arts.
The assignment for the young writers that participated in this year’s intake was addressing the effects of COVID-19 in their communities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed life as we know it and its impact is being felt by all generations – young and old – well done to Blooming Minds for tackling real issues. We are honoured at GENESIS for being able to be a part of this wonderful project empowering children,” says GENESIS’s DVP Communications and Marketing, Babalwa Bungane.
To recognise the young writer’s hard work and creativity, Blooming Minds hosts yearly award ceremonies in Lagos and Accra, and latest 2021 edition was recently held in Lagos. Thelma Ofosu-Amoah, Founder, comments: “We have a criterion for the selection process; we look at the originality, vocabulary, theme and setting. For this year, we incorporated COVID-19 and how this has impacted families.”
Ofosu-Amoah adds: “Some of the realities that we picked up from the entries were how the kids related the pressure they have been experiencing because of the pandemic. These included things like the use or lack of access to the internet, another factor was the loss of social time. This had a big impact on the kids as well as the family dynamics.”
“Because of GENESIS support we were able to reach a lot more children. GENESIS made up about 70% of our sponsorship. We are eternality grateful” Ofosu-Amoah concludes.
GENESIS congratulates all of the participants and we continue to partner with Blooming Minds and others in Lighting up Africa One Community at a Time.