Human Services Ministry selects 10 winners in ‘Short Story’ competition

10 winners were selected from 220 entries from all across the country and will now have their
stories published in a special book in the Short Story Writing Competition by the Human
Services and Social Security Ministry.
The following ten persons have been found to be the best authors in the competition: Aradhya
Ramjag (Aaila Runs Away); Daniel Persaud (Quick Thinking); Rondel Parks (Annie Calls 914);
Vanessa Ramdehooll (Puppy Love); Daniel Lalchand (Early Morning Scare); Sajid Amin
(Praying for a Miracle); Giovanna George (Tickling Tommy); Rachel Davis (Fire, Fire!)
Roshanie Mahadeo (The Black Coat); and Shaquana Richards (Veronica’s Father).
The Ministry said that it plans to present prizes to all of the winners who wrote their stories
centered on the “Every Child Safe” campaign that was launched in September by its minister,
Dr. Vindhya Persaud. Her intention is to rein in the issues surrounding child abuse in Guyana.
The age group targeted was 12 years old and under and the word limit was 250. Dr. Persaud,
along with staff of the Ministry, shared in reading and editing the pieces.
Under ‘Every Child Safe’, more is done than just seek to make information available to the
public; a personal and consistent check-in with members of communities all across Guyana is
carried out for help to identify perpetrators and bring relief to sufferers. “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,” the minister
explained.
This partnership, she stressed, sees 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.