UPU News:- 2015 Letter-Writing Competition winners announced

ara Jadid from Lebanon has won the UPU’s International Letter-Writing Competition 2015 with her letter on the world she wishes to grow up in. She impressed an international jury with a heartfelt plea for a world without war.

“From here, this dark world, I dream of living in a bright world, even if it is beyond the horizon… Every time I close my eyes, I dream of a world where doves fly and the lights of mountainside villages shine every evening,” the 13-year-old from Tripoli wrote.

As the gold-medallist, Sara’s prize includes a trip to Switzerland to visit the UPU’s International Bureau.

UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein said he was delighted that children are still writing letters in this digital day and age.

“I am extremely pleased that the art of letter-writing is alive and well,” he said.

“I am espe­cially touched that it is still being practised by the world's young people to such a high standard,” he remarked.

The international jury also awarded a silver medal to Miriam Campos Acin, an 11-year-old girl from Spain and the bronze to Silva Brito Leonardo, a 15-year-old boy from Brazil.

Miriam’s letter was addressed to the World.

“My teacher assigned us a science project on you, so I decided to take an imaginary trip around you, stopping at places where we hear about problems on the news every day,” she wrote.

Silva’s letter was written from the point of view of a volunteer setting up a postal service in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“In my time here, I have learned that our dreams and plans mean nothing if we do not have the courage to fight for them, even at the risk of our lives,” he wrote.

Special mentions were also awarded to: Tatev Barseghyan, 14 years old (Armenia); Jacqueline Doriane Dandjinou 14 years old (Benin); Josep Gil Sander, 13 years old (Haiti); Zvezdana Gojkovi?, 13 years old (Montenegro); Prabidhik K.C., 14 years old (Nepal); Maria Coutinho, 13 years old (Portugal); Fedir Nahornyi, 12 years old (Ukraine); Aliaa Ajil Mohammad Khamis Balsoub Al-Ketbi, 11 years old (United Arab Emirates); and Hai Nam Truong, 13 years old (Viet Nam). 

International jury

One of the judges this year was Caroline Naddeo, a banker based in France, who was the letter-writing competition gold laureate from 1989. She jumped at the chance to be on the jury.

“The letters show that young people are very concerned about the future of our planet and the life conditions of their peers around the world,” she said.

Dimitri Fatouros, communication officer for Greece and Cyprus at the United Nations Regional Information Centre in Brussels, Belgium, was another judge.

“Although each story was unique, expressing the temperament of each one of the young writers, reading through the letters made me realize once more that the expectations, the thoughts, the anxieties of the children are identical independent of where they are in our world,” he said.

This year, 65 member countries submitted their winning letters from the national heats to the international round. Some 1.5 million children participated.