Callout for writing competition judges

Growing the Future is planning to collaborate on a youth refugee stories writing project with Nakivale Refugee Settlement library and Go Green Initiatives in Uganda, East Africa.

Elijah Astute has volunteered to encourage and mentor young writers in the settlement, aged 14 to 24, as they write, hone and submit their pieces for a competition.

All submissions will eventually be published here on Growing-the-Future.org, and the two category winners (from age groups 14-18 and 19-24) will receive prize money and more prominent publication. Selected runners-up will also be featured more visibly on this site.

At this early stage, we seek writers who are people of colour, refugees/asylum seekers themselves, or from another marginalised group, to express their interest in joining the judging panel.

We anticipate receiving no more than 50 entries, of less than 1000 words each, later in 2025. The de-identified stories will be available online for judge review and scoring—or we can email them to you, if you prefer.

We hope to provide a small honorarium to each judge, as a token of our appreciation, and in recognition that we are seeking writers from marginalised groups to contribute time and effort to this worthy cause.

We anticipate that encouraging, listening to and giving these young refugee writers a platform to share their stories will significantly improve their mental health. It will also raise consciousness in the wider world about important issues in global inequity that can no longer be ignored.

Please email catherine@dunk.id.au by 30 June 2025 to express your interest in joining us in this venture, either as a judge or in some other capacity—or feel free to comment below to pass on a lead or any relevant information.

There is a fundraising page here to raise money for a book containing the stories received. Please be generous, if you can!