THE Ministry of Human Services and Social Security has launched a Short Story Writing Competition for young writers on the topic: Child Safety.

According to a release, this new initiative forms part of the ‘Every Child Safe’ campaign that was launched by subject minister, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, in September, which seeks to tighten the grip on issues surrounding child abuse in Guyana.

The age group being targeted in the competition is 12 years old and under, with the word limit being 250. Entries being sent in to the ministry must be completed with the participant’s name, address, age and contact numbers.

The 10 best stories will be published in a special book produced by the ministry and young authors with winning entries will receive prizes.

Submissions can be made at the Ministry’s East and Lamaha Streets, Georgetown location, or can be emailed to prmohsss@gmail.com. The deadline is November 11, 2021.

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,” Dr. Persaud said.

The release noted that this partnership will see 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.

Meanwhile, just recently, 25 girls, who are members of vulnerable groups across Guyana, were given the opportunity to write their stories and get them published under another project by the ministry called “The StoryBoard Initiative”.