Deadline: 20-Jan-23
Are you a Ugandan aspiring writer who is 12–23 years old or in grades Primary 6 – Primary 7, Senior one to Senior Six, or a University student? Apply to participate in the monthly essay competitions and stand a chance to win cash prizes, gift hampers, and a chance for your essay(s) to be featured in the annual literary magazine.
Youth Rising Writing Institute is a program of Youth Rising International that seeks to empower young people in Uganda to express their views through writing. The program focuses on putting views, ideals and opinions of young people at the forefront through writing challenges.
The ultimate goal is to spark “critical thinking” and build the next generation of leaders that write with brevity, creativity, language, and unique personal style.
The writing challenges are open to Ugandan aspiring writers who are between aged 12–23 years, or in grades Primary 5 – Primary 7, Senior one to Senior Six, or University students. Each challenge is open for a specific period of time that the writer can use to gather their thoughts, write and submit a 500 word essay. They encourage primary and high school students to work with their teachers and integrate writing challenges into their daily teaching schedules.
Topic Categories
- Business and Entrepreneurship
- Environment and Climate Change
- Health and Wellness (COVID-19, HIV/AIDS), Malaria, SRHR, NTDs, etc.)
- History and Politics
- Human Rights
- Social Issues (WASH, Education, Youth Development)
- STEM
Award Details
- National Winner (1)
- Honorable Mentions (2)
- There will be 2 honorable mentions and each will receive up to 25,000 UGX cash prizes, The essays will be published on their website and social media channels.
- Annual All Challenges Winner
- Every December, they award the National All Challenges Winner with a Tablet. To qualify for the annual award, you must have participated in at least 6 challenges and. The Writing Institute picks 5 top essays from the year and submits them to the judges who choose the essay of the year.
- The winning essay takes the Annual All Challenges prize and his/her essay is published on social media and national newspapers.
- Annual Literary Magazine
- The Annual Literary Magazine is a collection of the top 200 essays of the year. These are collected from each challenge and published in December. This is another great opportunity to have your writings featured.
Rules and Regulations
- Entrants can enter in any challenge but can only submit one entry per challenge.
- Essays must be submitted through using the official PDF form following clear steps posted on each challenge page.
- No entries will be accepted after the deadline. The organizers accept no responsibility for delivery or for subsequent safekeeping of any essay entered for the competition.
- Essay attachments should be attached in PDF or Word (equivalent) format.
- All submitted essays must contain name of the submitter, challenge number and registration number. This means removing any names, that the authors are part of or any other identifying information that they omit may cause disqualification. Submissions that are anonymous will be disqualified.
- All entries must be written in English.
- The essay competition is open to anyone in Uganda who is part of one of the groups:
- Studying at a senior school/high school/college (12 – 23 years old)
- Studying from primary level (12 – 14 years), High school (13 – 19 years) and University/College/Institution (18 – 23 years).
- Only one entry per person will be allowed for each challenge.
- All communication with the entrant will be by email. It is the responsibility of the entrant to check their email address in order to receive further communications from Youth Rising Writing Institute
- Each essay must be written and submitted by a single author being the student without any co-authorship from another individual.
- The essay must be the sole creation and original work of that person. No previously published work will be accepted. All essays submitted will be closely checked for plagiarism with entries disqualified if found to be plagiarized. Entrants are expected to be aware of any plagiarism guidance and policies of the academic and professional training institutions to which they currently belong.
- The judges of the competition will include members of Youth Rising International and different Ugandan and International personalities.
- The judges’ decisions on any awarding of any prize in the competition will be final and is not subject to any appeal. Essays will be judged on the quality of content, creativity and language.
- Any essay submitted should conform to the following rules as to content, length and style:
- The essay should begin with the title of the essay, name of the author and the challenge number
- The essay must be of no more than 500 words (excluding figures and references).
- The essay should be in Word (or equivalent) or PDF format.
- References if any should be included at the end of the essay in any desired reference style.
- The prizes for the Youth Rising Writing Institute Challenges are as follows:
- First prize – UGX 50,000 Cash Prize and a chance for your essay to be published in a leading national newspaper.
- Honorable Mentions – 2 awards each receiving UGX 25,0.000 and the essays will be featured on web and social sites, and also added in the annual literary magazine.
- All other essay authors receive a certificate of recognition.
- Annual All Challenge winner receives a tablet.
- It is expected that prize winners will have their names published on the Youth Rising Writing Institute website alongside their submission.
- The prizes are expected to change over time and over challenges. Youth Rising Writing Institute has exclusive rights on determining the value of prizes.
- The sponsors, reserve the right to substitute any prize for another within their absolute discretion without notice.
- Youth Rising Writing Institute reserves the right to withhold the award of any or all prizes offered if in their absolute discretion if no essay entered warrants the award of any or all prize(s).
- Prize-winners are entitled to refer to the achievement on their CV.
- Youth Rising Writing Institute reserves the right to publish or reproduce any or all of any essay and media materials (including photo/video/audio) entered for the competition. In reproducing any essay Youth Rising Writing Institute reserves the right to omit, alter, paraphrase or delete any part of that essay in their absolute discretion for any reason.
- Youth Rising Writing Institute reserves the right to cancel the competition for any reason and at any time.
- The decision of the Youth Rising Writing Institute on the interpretation of these rules will be final.
For more information, visit Youth Rising Writing Institute.