Paris,
Johannesburg, 17 May 2013
As part of their commemoration of World
Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) MultiChoice Africa and
Eutelsat Communications announced the return of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards
for 2013. The awards inspire innovative
thinking among secondary and high school students in Africa, to create
awareness on 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.
According to Nico Meyer, Chief Executive of
MultiChoice Africa, the 2013 awards are perfectly aligned with the objective of
WTISD, namely to raise awareness of the impact of information and communication
technologies (ICTs), and in particular satellites, on society. “The new edition of the Star Awards challenge
high school student from over 42 African countries to propose how they would
use the satellites in space to address three community, country or African
continental priorities” he added.
The annual awards, which grew from 800
entries in 2011 to over 1000 last year take the form of a competition open to
14-19 year-old students to write an essay or design a poster on the specified
topic. Country winners, besides winning exciting country prizes, will go on to
compete against each other for the overall continental awards. Like their 2011 and 2012 counterparts, this
year’s overall essay and poster winners will win a once in a lifetime trip for
two to the Eutelsat facilities in Paris, with the essay winner traveling
onwards to witness a live rocket launch.
Runners up will win a trip to South Africa as guests of MultiChoice
Africa. Schools attended by the overall
winners will also receive a DStv installation, including dish, television,
state-of-the-art PVR decoder and free access to the DStv Education Bouquet.
For Eutelsat Chief Executive, Michel de
Rosen, the ability of the competition to stimulate thinking among young
Africans on the application of satellite technology to shape society and
economies, combined with first hand exposure of winners to the technology in
action, is a unique offering. “The awards present us with an opportunity to
actively stimulate and showcase emerging science and technology talent on the
African continent,“ he said. According
to de Rosen, the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards is, as far as can be established,
the only competition aimed at promoting knowledge and understanding of
satellite technology among African youth and to kindle their interest to
explore the exciting career paths and opportunities that the world of
satellites offer: “We are delighted as a
leading satellite telecommunications business to celebrate the 2013 World
Telecommunication and Information Society Day in such a fitting and appropriate
manner.”
The power of the awards to enrich lives is
attested to by 2012 best essay winner Oyom Anthony from Uganda for who his
recent trip to Paris and French Guiana was an exhilarating experience. Says Anthony: “The tour of Paris was
breath-taking, and the visit to the Guiana Space Centre was very enriching and
educative. Meeting and interacting with the various stakeholders in the launch
programs at Kourou was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and as I flew back
here, I reflected a lot on the achievements of these amazing persons and the
lessons we could learn from them.”
Students can enter the awards by collecting
an entry form and other resources from their nearest MultiChoice office or
download a copy at www.dstvstarawards.com. Entries for
the awards close on 19 September 2013.
ends.
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