After three months of early competition, the final round of the 2013 Story Telling Contest was organised at the General Science Library (GSL) on July 16th. 50 visually-impaired children came along from 4 schools from 4 different provinces including Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Tre, Tay Ninh and Dong Nai.
The contest began at 08.30am but some of the children from remote areas got up much much earlier that day to prepare for the trip down to the big city of Ho Chi Minh City. A group of children from Tay Ninh province even poured out that they were so excited to be at the contest that they woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning!
An exciting introduction session featuring some of little performers had them showing off their talents. The performance brought about a lot of different emotions for everyone in the audience but the atmosphere was full of tender loving care when 2 very cute twin girls told the legend of the white daisy.
The audience were almost brought to tears when a team from Dong Nai province related the story of a disadvantaged boy whose strong desire to go to school overcame all the difficulties he coped with every day. This touching story together with the outstanding performance given by the team mean that they went on to become the eventual winners of the contest.
Ky- one of the team members said: “Before the competition I was so nervous, but my friends and I empathized so much and so easily with the characters in the story that we all cried when we performed”.
The contest was a wonderful time for these children to make friends and learn from each other. However, the greatest benefit is in the fact that this competition helps to build and encourage self-confidence in each of them. All children taking part in the event that morning felt like they were all winners because they overcame their natural shyness and lack of confidence to perform in front of a lot of people as they did.