UN Women essay participants win laptops

FOUR of the 186 participants in the United Nations Women gender equality essay competition will win a laptop each, according to UN Women.
The four winners are Konjim Andreas, 17, from Western Highlands, Ricard Isaac, 19, from East New Britain, Rebeccah Gapi, 19, from National Capital District (NCD) and Jerome Sesega, 26, from NCD.
The winners were assessed based on the quality of the essay, geographical spread, gender and age. The competition was open to people between the ages 13 and 26 to share their thoughts and solutions to address gender equality on women’s political participation and leadership in the country.
Acting head of agency for UN Women in PNG Caroline Nyamayemombe said: “We feel very privileged to have heard from young people about their aspirations for gender equality and increasing women’s leadership in PNG.”
According to UN Women, the programme would benefit others in the long run in changing the negative perception of women in political leadership and belief that women could be the change makers to lead and make better decisions.
It was the first of its kind competition that the UN Women had organized.
UN Women hope to do more in the future to promote the voices of youths under the programme “Women Make the Change”.
UN Women said through the entries in the essay competition, it was clear that young people had a lot to say about the state of gender equality in the country.
UN Women said the entrants were keen to share their ideas and solutions on how to address some of the challenges of political participation of women in the country.