The Masa Memorial Essay Contest and
Emilie Ahonsou
The Masa Memorial Essay Contest had 9 winners this year. The
prizes were awarded to the winners in October 2005. The contestants
were asked to write about their dreams for the future and how
these dreams can be realized. Everyone had an impressive essay.
Some essays were very insightful as they revealed the children’s
understanding of individual responsibility for a better tomorrow.
Emilie at the Masa Memorial Essay Contest Award ceremony.
Emilie yearns
to make a difference
Emilie Ahonsou, an 8th grade student wrote of her dream to attack
one specific problem. She said: “I want to become a doctor
to find a cure for HIV, and I know that the only road to becoming
a doctor is education. If I have education I can participate in
the larger talk about AIDS and help to discover a cure.”
As though to express her understanding of a national responsibility
in making tomorrow better, she went further by saying: "…my
country has to participate in finding the cure, too…"
Emilie won the first prize of $40. We hope that this prize will
help to relieve the financial burden on the parents who see their
child's potential but struggle each year to pay the school fees.
Essays like Emilie’s can reveal the bigger picture of how
much the children understand, hence their drive to fulfill the
dream of learning to read and write, working to enable themselves
to further dream for a brighter future, opening their eyes to
a larger world.
Donating to fund the Masa Memorial Essay Contest is noble as
it will help the children further their education.
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Masa Memorial Essay Contest Winners
2006
The prizes and certificates for the annual Masa Memorial Essay
Contest winners were awarded in all the 6 schools in the village
of Lavié. There were a total of 18 winners – 6 first
prize winners, 6 second prize winners and 6 third prize winners.
The first prize was $60, second prize $40 and the third $20.
Some Masa Memorial Essay Contest winners holding their certificates.
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Masa Memorial Essay Contest Winners 2007
Kossi Adjakpa,
one of the 176 who participated in the Masa Memorial Essay Contest,
was in grade 6 last year. He is the eldest of 4. The youngest
is less than 2 years old. They lost their father who was a farmer
and the only breadwinner of the household. His paternal grandfather,
also a farmer, was left with the responsibility of helping to
raise the children. In the beginning of this past summer, less
than a year after the passing of his father, the grandfather
also died.
Kossi Adjakpa, a 2006 Masa Memorial Essay
Contest Winner.
Despite this tragedy he passed on to grade 7 this year and
won one of the first prizes of the Masa Memorial Essay Contest
this year.
"I heard that education
is a good thing," he said, "so I am facing it as my
only hope. And I told my mother, too, if I can get the help,
I will always do my best in class so that I can help you and
my siblings when I am through.”
The distribution of the prizes and certificates of Masa Memorial
Essay Contest took place in the village of Lavié, Togo
in the morning of November 5, 2007. The village’s 7 schools
participated.
There were a total of 26 winners – 7 first prize winners,
7 second prize winners and 12 third prize winners. The first
prize was $60, second prize $40 and the third $20.
