#Stories4Health Writing Competition Winners

Hello Netizens

The #Stories4Health Writing Competition, where Muwado members have been submitting creatively packaged stories about the COVID-19 pandemic and the health sector in general since the beginning of May 2020, came to a close at the end of June 2020. Over the last 10 days, a judging panel has been going through the entries and today, we are happy to present the winners from that process. Scoring was done using:

• Post virality as at 30th June when the competition was closed (views, shares, upvote/downvote score, number of comments),
• Quality of the submissions (typos, grammar, creativity)
• and input from Amari, our sponsoring partners.

So, without further ado, here are the winners of the #Stories4Health Writing Competition.

1. OBULAMU: THE MEANING OF LIFE by Godwin Ochieng

Congratulations Ochieng on coming out as the overall winner of the #Stories4Health Writing Competition. Ochieng showed off his narrative prowess to explore the different ways the pandemic is affecting their community. This is what convinced the judges to award it the top prize despite coming second in virality.

Godwin Ochieng wins Ugx 500,000. 

2. COVID 19: THE TRIBES OF THE FOREST by Mbeiza Lynn Felicia

Congratulations! Mbeiza had the most read post from the competition (with 3,600 views at the time of publishing this) and explored an angle to this pandemic that usually goes unnoticed, the tribes living in the forests. Had this competition been just a virality contest, this entry would have won hands down but the judging panel felt the post itself could have been fleshed out more and done a more thorough job addressing the plight of the highlighted tribes. Mbeiza, we hope you consider this feedback constructive. 

Mbeiza Lynn Felicia wins Ugx 300,000. 

3. “Mujooga basajja mwe!” – The value of a 10k shilling note in this pandemic. by Ms.Muhanuuzi

Congratulations, Muhanuuzi. In addition to your efforts in making sure your post got read widely, the judges were impressed with how you creatively explored the conversation around Ugandan citizens bailing out their government in its efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic. 

Ms.Muhanuuzi wins Ugx 200,000

Congratulations to the 3 of you and we shall be reaching out to you in your inbox to see how to transfer your winnings to you. 

Unfortunately, we were unable to get more partners on board (times are understandably hard all round) so we could reward more participants, but we’d like you all to know we appreciate your participation and willingness to share the story of your thoughts and experiences during this historic time. Muwado is here for this purpose and we hope you continue sharing your thoughts and stories here. A huge thank you to those that read, engaged and shared these stories.

For those that care about the numbers, We got 68 submissions in total. Between them, they generated over 25,000 views and over 1,000 comments. You did well guys and there were several gems in there and they can all be viewed from here. The numbers are important because as Muwado grows and we start running advertisements, we shall be splitting that revenue with the storytellers on the platform based on how well their content performs. In the meantime, we will be organising other challenges during the course of the year so watch this space.

Let’s also give one final round of applause to our sponsors, Amari, for believing in people’s stories as much as we do. Money and prosperity fall on you.