Teams from Nigeria (Ugenyi Igbokwe), South Africa, and Tanzania have been selected and awarded topmost prizes of the Atoms Empowering Africa youth video competition organised by Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom.
The award, which was decided by the public and independent jury through votes cast, selected four teams from South Africa, Nigeria and Tanzania who received the highest number of votes from both the jury and the public.
A statement from Rosatom explained that three teams – two South African teams and one Tanzanian team – got the highest votes, while the independent jury awarded their special decision to the Nigerian contestant – Ugenyi Igbokwe – due to the exceptional effort and great attention to technical detail put into producing the video. It explained that the trip to Russia would be in November 2018, with winning participant(s) after an award ceremony in October in Johannesburg, South Africa. The trip by the winning participant(s) to Russia is an all-expenses paid trip to study the nuclear power facilities of Rosatom.
The Chief Executive Officer of Rosatom Central and Southern Africa, Mr. Dmitry Shornikov, stated:
“We at Rosatom view education and youth development as a priority. Atom Empowering Africa Video Competition is running for the 4th year already. It is aimed at encouraging students to do their own research into various nuclear applications for peaceful use.
We are happy to support youth empowerment through this competition and hope it allows more young people from Sub-Saharan African to research how atomic technologies can benefit all Africans.”
Other winners include Veronica Kgabisang Gouws, Koketso Kgorinyane, Naomi Mokhine from South Africa; Harriet Mphaho and Thabo Mametja also from South Africa, while Sophia Abeid, George Davis Bilali and Suzane Constantine Mumba from Tanzania with Going Nuclear: Africa’s Energy Future were placed in third position.
The video competition was from June to September 2018 with young people invited to research and to make their videos about various nuclear technologies, their applications and benefits for Africa, post them online and take a chance to win educative week-long journey to Russian nuclear facilities and landmarks.
