MultiChoice Africa, Eutelsat launches Awards for innovative students

MultiChoice Africa and Eutelsat Communications have released details of the 2-13 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards, as part of the commemoration of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The awards are aimed at inspiring innovative thinking among high school students in Africa, promoting awareness of how science and technology can be applied to everyday life, and to showcase the many ways that satellites already impact on the development of the African continent.

Liz Dziva, publicity and public relations manager of MultiChoice Zimbabwe, said the awards were linked with purpose to the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, raising awareness of the impact of information and communication technology, particularly satellites, on society.

"The Star Awards challenge high school students from over 42 African countries, including Zimbabwe, to propose how they would use the satellites in space to address three community, country or continental priorities."

The awards grew from 800 entries in 2011 to over 1 000 last year and will this year take the form of a competition open to 14 to 19-year-old students, who have to write an essay or design a poster on the specified topic. Country prizes will be available to winners of each of the participating countries, with overall winners going on to compete against each other at continental level for the overall awards. Like the 2011 and 2012 winners, this year's overall essay and poster winners will each win once-in-a-lifetime trips for two to the Eutelsat facilities in Paris, with the essay winner going on to also witness a live rocket launch.

Runners-up in the competition will win trips to South Africa as guests of MultiChoice Africa.  Schools attended by the overall winners will each also receive a DStv installation, including dish, television, state-of-the-art PVR decoder and free access to the DStv Education Bouquet.

Ms Dziva said the competition would stimulate thinking among young Africans on the application of satellite technology to shaping society and economies and would give the winners first-hand exposure to the technology in action.

"The awards present us with an opportunity to actively stimulate and showcase emerging science and technology talent on the African continent and the competition uniquely promoted knowledge and understanding of satellite technology among African youth, kindling an interest in exploring career paths and opportunities that the world of satellites offered.

"We are delighted to be able to celebrate the 2013 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day in such a fitting and appropriate manner," she said.

The power of the awards to enrich lives is attested to by 2012 best essay winner, Oyom Anthony of Uganda, whose trip to Paris and French Guyana was an exhilarating experience.

"The tour of Paris was breathtaking and the visit to the Guyana Space Centre was enriching and educative. Meeting and interacting with the various stakeholders in the launch programmes at Kourou was a massive opportunity to learn more, and as I flew back home, I reflected on the achievements of the amazing people I met and the lessons we could alllearn from them."

Students can enter the awards by collecting an entry form and other resources from MultiChoice Zimbabwe customer care centres in Harare, Chitungwiza, Bulawayo and Mutare or by downloading information from www.dstvstarawards.com. Entries for the awards close on September 19.