On the 8th of April, 2 members and an Executive of the University of Ibadan Medical Students’ Association made history when they were crowned winners of Uniting to Combat NTDs(Neglected Tropical Diseases) and The Youth Combating NTDs Global Story-telling Competition by, Frank Edoho at the conclusion of the Virtual Global Youth Festival.
Participants of the Global story-telling competition were asked to submit compelling entries to inspire action to beat Neglected Tropical Diseases in 4 categories(Digital, Audio, Video and Text) and stand the chance to win prizes worth $20,000. The Youth Story-telling competition acted as a drum-beat to the Kigali Summit on Malaria and NTDs as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in June 2021 and will help galvanise global support for NTDs that will culminate into tangible commitments from countries that will be announced on the stage in Rwanda.
Submissions were accepted from monday, 21st December 2020 and the deadline for submission was stated for 17th January 2021. 5 days prior to this, David Adetula a Dental student and member of the rather talented and proactive 2k19 class informed his classmates about the competition.
Lydia Okon, a member of the 2k19 class and a versatile visual artist known for her intriguing collages, beautiful digital paintings and captivating animations was initially dismayed by the scary deadline, but a partnership initiated 3 days to the deadline by a call from Miss Omotola Odeleke,the Assistant general secretary of UIMSA,would prove to be the beginning of great things. Lydia’s talent, Tola’s Idea and their shared resilence would birth an animation about how together, we can do so much to beat NTDs.
Another versatile visual artist and member of the 2k19 class, Ireoluwa Adegoke, the Features Editor of the UIMSA Clinical Press,also showed keen interest in participating in the competition despite not knowing what NTDs were at the time, but by asking questions about NTDs and conducting a proper google enquiry on the group of diseases he came up with the witty and inspiring piece, “The Elephant in the room”.
On the 30th of January 2021, an initial list of 40 finalists, 10 from each category was announced on the Youth combating NTDs twitter page without Ireoluwa Adegoke being on the list with the final 3 to be announced by 4th February 2021, but due to the unexpected overwhelming amount of entries received by the organisers, more experienced Jurors like Drue Kataoka and Professor Sarah Anyang Agbor among many others were called to re-judge the entries.
1st April 2021, marked the beginning of the week long Virtual Global Youth Festival where a new list of 40 finalists were released with their work exhibited virtually at https://emperia.gallery/UTC/index.htm
On the 8th of April, 2 members and an Executive of the University of Ibadan Medical Students’ Association made history and were crowned winners, with Ireoluwa Adegoke coming in at 2nd place after Okon Lydia & Miss Omotola Odeleke claimed the first place prize,in the digital category.