By Foday Moriba Conteh
As part of their efforts towards celebrating brilliant minds and to provide growth opportunities for young gifted creative writers in the country, “Discovering The Hidden Pens Poetry Organization”, a non-profit organization working towards showcasing young poets in the country has on Saturday 19th November 2022 held its National Intercollegiate Poetry Competition grand finale in the country.
The Poetry Competition, which brought participants from different colleges in the country was held at the New City Hall Auditorium on Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown.
The top 3 winners in this year’s Intercollegiate Poetry Competition grand finale included Simeon Austin David Pangu, a student of the University of Makeni, who took the first position and was awarded NLe 20,000 by Orange Money plus being crowned as Brand Ambassador for Hypemart, Joseph Massaquoi a, Student of Fourah Bay College, who took the 2nd Position and was awarded NLe5, 000 by AfriGas and Fatu Conteh of the Njala University, who took the 3rd position and was awarded NLe 2,000.
Speaking to this medium, the National Coordinator of “Discovering The Hidden Pens Poetry Organization”, John Koroma, said that the organization is working towards showcasing young poets in the country.
He added that the organization opened applications for students to apply and after applying they went through a rigorous process before the 10 finalists were announced, adding that the 10 finalists are representing top Universities/Colleges in the country which includes Fourah Bay College, the Institute of Public Administration and Management, UNIMAK, Njala University, Milton Margai Technical University etc.
John Koroma also stated that prior to the grand finale they held various outreach programs in order to provide the much-needed orientation to young creative minds to embrace the life-changing opportunity and to equally educate aspiring contenders to know the structure of the historic competition.
He concluded by applauding the Chief Executive Officer of Discovering The Hidden Pens Poetry Organization, Matilda Kahwa for creating the platform for young people in the country to discover their hidden talents.
Making a statement, the former winner of the Intercollegiate Poetry Competition, Lansana expressed appreciation to Discovering The Hidden Pens Poetry Organization for staging another edition of the Intercollegiate Poetry Competition which he described as a very important platform towards providing growth opportunities for young gifted creative writers in the country.
He said due to the Intercollegiate Poetry Competition that he won such has empowered him the more and has created several platforms for him. He urged all to make good use of the given platform which he said will provide growth opportunities for them.
On his part, Simeon Austin David Pangu, a student of Fourah Bay College, who took the first position, commended Discovering The Hidden Pens Poetry Organization for organizing the competition.
He said that he is proud to be announced as the winner of this year’s Intercollegiate Poetry Competition which he said was due to his commitment and hard.
Simeon Austin David Pangu called on other poets in the country to make good use of the opportunity given by Discovering The Hidden Pens Poetry Organization through its Intercollegiate Poetry Competition.
