Go Old School, Write a Letter (Yup – pen and paper) and Win MyZA

With just over four months left until the start of the Olympic Games, the heat is on to find South Africa’s best letter writer. Letter writer you may ask? With the theme “write a letter to an athlete or sports figure you admire to explain what the Olympics means to you” the SA Post Office is inviting scholars to share their enthusiasm about the Olympic Games with their sporting heroes and compete in the SA Post Office Letter Writing Competition.

Twenty year old Springbok hockey player and former Junior World Cup champion Nicole Kemp has traded her hockey stick in for pen and paper to endorse the letter writing competition. Kemp who is passionate about sport development is eager to promote sport through literacy. “I am thrilled to be a part of such a positive initiative, I hope that I can encourage other children to take part in the competition and to learn more about our sporting heroes who will very soon be heading off to London for the Olympics,” commented Kemp.

Kemp has put her voice behind the competition and will be visiting schools in the Eastern Cape region to encourage her peers to take part in the competition in an attempt to increase awareness for sport and promote literacy.

“We are thrilled to have Nicole as an ambassador for the letter writing competition, her enthusiasm for sports is encouraging and she is a wonderful role model for other children. Being able to read and write is an essential and fundamental tool in life and we hope that with Nicole’s support we can encourage children to put pen to paper and enter the letter writing competition,” said Angela Abrahams, SA Post Office Senior Manager, Corporate Citizenship.

The South African Post Office (SA Post Office) is inviting scholars up to the age of 15 to take part in the 41st International Letter Writing Competition. The theme for this year’s competition coincides with 2012′s biggest sporting spectacular, the Olympic Games.

The letter writing competition is run annually by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the winning entry from each country competes for the title of “best letter writer”.

The SA Post Office has provided additional incentive for young learners to take part in the competition with different prize categories:

There will be a winner from each province who will receive R5 000 and R15 000 for their school.
The school with the most entries will win R10 000
The National winner will win R15 000 for themselves and R25 000 for their school and the national winning letter will also be sent to the UPU for consideration for the International Prize.

The SA Post Offices invests in the letter writing competition as an immensely important education tool, not only to encourage literacy amongst children but to create awareness on topical issues that will encourage children to put pen to paper. This year’s topic will assist in creating awareness on the Olympics as it will encourage learners to do research, internalize the facts and learn about South Africa’s talented sporting heroes.

Entries close on the 31st March 2012 and entry forms are available online here.