Interviewer: Hello, can we meet you?
Interviewee: Hi, I’m Okon Lydia, I’m a 4th year medical student and Artist.
Interviewer: What media do you work with?
Okon Lydia: Digital art including animation, but I do paper craft majorly.
Interviewer: How are you doing today? Compliments of the season to you
Okon Lydia: Very fine, thank you. Same to you.
Interviewer: How are you enjoying the holidays?
Okon Lydia: I’ve not been enjoying the holidays to the fullest because of the guilt of not preparing for my upcoming MB with the time this holiday provides.
Interviewer: Congratulations on winning the award , so can you tell us more about this award?
Okon Lydia: It’s an award for a story-telling competition that I partook in around early November. It’s a competition to raise awareness against Female Genital mutilation by telling a story about female genital mutilation in different media forms. I submitted my story in form of an animation.
Interviewer: How did you get you know about it?
Okon Lydia: I got to know about it from a Friend who also made an entry, at first I was not interested in the competition but then I saw the poster on Instagram and on a WhatsApp group, so I decided to give it a shot.
Interviewer: How competitive was the competition?
Okon Lydia: A total of four hundred and eighteen(418) entries from Africans were received and an initial fifteen people were selected from each category and after an extensive review process. 10 finalists eventually selected.
I would say it was pretty competitive because there were 4 different categories competing for first place, text, video, infographic/visual and videos.
Interviewer: Why did you think you won the award?
Okon Lydia: The criteria was given during the award ceremony and I was fortunate enough to tick most of the boxes and satisfy the Judges. Some of the criteria, include;
Work having a powerful message against Female Genital Mutilation
Creativity and originality of submission.
Quality and clarity of the work
The amount of information in the work (Fact/Figures)
The extent to which the work evoked Emotion/Passion
Amount of effort put into creating the work
Interviewer: Is this something you have been working towards for a long time?
Okon Lydia: No, my entry was Impromptu. When I decided to submit an entry I already had a short deadline to work with, but from previous experience I’ve learnt that impromptu work can always turn out very well, so I started despite the short deadline and submission was free anyway, I had nothing to lose.
Interviewer: Can you pls cut soap to other uimsites that would like to win this award in the future
Okon Lydia: Lol, of course
Interviewer: What are your plans for the new year?
Okon Lydia: Ah, read my books! There’s test and MBII to read for.
Interviewer: Tell us a fun fact about yourself?
Okon Lydia: I love music and I love dancing to gbedu alone… like alone… I’m shy haha
Interviewer:are you single or in a relationship?
Okon Lydia: I am single(smiles)
Interviewer: Thank you very much for joining us here at the UIMSA Clinical press.We say congrats to you and wish you the best in all your future endeavours.