GGZ Short Story Writing Competition

Girl Grandeur Zimbabwe in conjunction with Global Youth Fund Zimbabwe is holding a short story writing contest for teenage girls aged between 13-18 years under the theme, ‘The trouble with being a teenage girl’ as its pioneer project.

The annual short story contest is open to all Zimbabwean girls and aims to unearth the plight of the girl child in this digital age and will run until the 25th April 2015.
“The recent upsurge in headlines about the moral decadence amongst the youth inspired us to run with this project,” said Rozalliny Munemo, the Public Relations member of the board, “We want to hear from the girls themselves what they are struggling against, only then can we formulate strategies to alleviate their plight.”

The advent of new communication technologies created a whole new dimension to the problems that young people go through. For example, instant messaging platforms and social networks have resulted in cyberbullying. The parental generation never experienced this and most parents do not understand that the childhood they had is different from today’s childhood.

“Our main aim is to get to the thrust of real issues. Trying to help people without realising their real need is like taking painkillers for chronic pain, we need to deal with the root and not just the symptoms and we truly believe that the entries from this contest will help us to do this,” concluded Rozalliny Munemo.

The top three entries will receive hampers and cash prizes with the top prize winning the trophy. The rest of the stories, by judges’ choice, will be entered into the first anthology. This anthology will be an eye-opener on issues we were neglecting and a blue print for the strategies that will be implemented to address the grievances of the youth.

The short story contest will also showcase the diverse talent of the young women in Zimbabwe that will hopefully grow up and be nurtured to fill the gender gaps that we have in most publications and inspire more women-led publications.

Girl Grandeur Zimbabwe is a social club for women of all ages that aspires to bridge the gap between the younger and the older generation so as to harness the wisdom of the older women with the energy and zeal of the younger girls.