FunDza is excited to announce that they will be running a writing competition in conjunction with the release of a new South African film, Noem My Skollie. This film is based on the true story of John Fredericks, a master storyteller whose gift for telling and writing stories saved his life!
Growing up on the Cape Flats, he and his friends were caught trying to steal money from a shop. After being arrested and landing up in Pollsmoor, John made a deal with the hardened gangsters in prison: he would tell them a story every night, involving them as characters, if they left him alone and didn’t force him to join a gang.
The compelling film follows John’s life as he resisted his ‘label’ of being a skollie, changing his and many other people’s lives in the process as he worked with young people, sharing his story and helping them to tell their own.
FunDza believes in the power of stories, and here was one with a very literal demonstration of how stories can transform your life!
So FunDza jumped at the opportunity to partner with producers of the film Noem My Skollie, David Max Brown and Moshidi Motshegwa (Maxi-D Productions), to host this exciting writing competition.
Noem My Skollie is produced in association with M-Net, kykNET the NFVH and the DTI and distributed by Ster Kinekor Entertainment. It will be released countrywide on Friday 2 September 2016. To find out more about the film, follow it on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NoemMySkollieFilm/) and Twitter (@noemmyskollie).
FunDza Literacy Trust is passionate about the power of reading and writing. FunDza has a virtual library accessible to a wide range of cellphones. Every week a new story by a professional author is released, and there are also blogs, articles, poems and essays being loaded every day. Readers’ own work is housed in the ‘Fanz’ section and is enjoyed by FunDza’s thousands of readers throughout South Africa daily.
To enter FunDza’s Noem My Skollie competition, writers between the ages of 16 and 25 years need to send in a short piece of writing, inspired by someone like John, or about themselves, based on the theme: Don’t judge a book by its cover.
The writing submitted must be the author’s own original work and should be between 500 and 750 words. It can be submitted in either English or Afrikaans. Entries must be emailed to writing@fundza.co.za before the closing date – midnight on 15 July.
Click here for full details of the ‘Noem My Skollie’ Writing Competition: http://live.fundza.mobi/competitions/noem-my-skollie-writing-competition/
The competition winner will receive R2000 in cash as well as tickets to attend the gala premier of the film in either Cape Town (24 August) or Johannesburg (29 August)! Two runners-up will walk away with cash prizes of R1000 each.
All good writing submitted as part of the competition will be published on FunDza’s mobi network.
Read and share the story of John Fredericks, master storyteller and writer! Visit the FunDza.mobi network to read his story ‘The Creep’ which will be published on Friday 10th June 2016 and run as one FunDza’s weekly short stories, and be inspired by a feature article on him – Ex-Con Storyteller Rewrites His Future – written by Ndibulele Sotondoshe as part of FunDza’s ‘Inspiring Tomorrow’ series of true-life stories.
Visit FunDza’s mobi network via its responsive site – http://fundza.mobi, its Android app (called ‘FunDzApp’, available for download from the Google Play store), its Mxit app (search for ‘FunDza’ on Mxit), and its app on FreeBasics.com (accessible to Cell C users at no data costs).
