Multichoice Ghana, in a small ceremony, handed over prizes to the two winners and 2 runners-up of the DStv Eutelsat Start Awards competition at their offices in Accra. The 2 winners took home a state of the art Dell laptop and a certificate of participation and the 2 runners-up took home an Apple iPad and a certificate of participation each.

The DStv Eutelsat Star Awards is a competition open to 14-19 year-old students in 42 countries. Students were invited to write an essay or design a poster on satellite technology and how it can assist further development of their communities, country or the African continent. It is a collaborative effort between MultiChoice, Eutelsat and Mindset Learn aimed at inspiring innovative thinking among secondary and high-school students, to create awareness on how science and technology can be applied to everyday life, and to show the many ways that satellites already impact on the development of the African continent.

The winners were as follows: Essay -Winner Gilbert Osei Tutu, Runner Up Samuel Amoako Frimpong; and Poster – Winner Michael Yeboah, Runner Up Fafali Agbanator. Country winners are then entered into the African entry where there will emerge 2 overall continental winners. A final international jury will meet in South Africa, Johannesburg on September 12 to select the overall African winners.

Multichoice Ghana General Manager, Cecil Sunkwa Mills, at the awards event told the winners that “these Awards have unearthed talent, nurtured potential and showcased excellent of ideas among African students across the continent. We are proud of the student for entering and their parents and teachers for encouraging them. The positive response is an indication of the kind of success we can expect this kind of initiative to yield and the impressive global reach it has been able to garner.”

Student response to the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards organised by MultiChoice Africa and Eutelsat Communications, exceeded all expectations for its first edition. With final submissions coming in on 26 August, the total number of entries from secondary school students reached more than 500. A resource booklet for teachers and students was developed for the competition in addition to two 26-minute programmes, produced by Eutelsat, on the conquest of space and how satellite applications impact directly or indirectly on everyday lives. To give this material the broadest distribution, MultiChoice Africa leveraged multiple communications platforms including a specially-created website, its network of MultiChoice Resource Centres (MRCs) and the Mindset Learn channel. With over 400,000 visitors to the website in the first month, Eutelsat and MultiChoice decided to extend the closing date of the competition by three weeks to give students maximum opportunity to participate

Following the designation of country winners by local juries set up in each participating country, a final international jury will meet in South Africa, Johannesburg on September 12 to select the overall African winners. The African winner will be invited to see a live rocket launch and to visit Eutelsat’s satellite installations in France. The winner of the Second Prize will visit Eutelsat in France and Merit award winners will win a trip to Johannesburg to see DStv’s technical facilities and television studios at the MultiChoice Africa offices. They will also tour the Mindset education broadcasting facilities.