Winners of “This is My Story” competition honored at Al-Assad National Library

Damascus (ST) – “Wathiqat Watan” (Homaland Document) Foundation honored the 17 winners of the Foundation’s “This is My Story” Award competition-2023 for the best short realistic story.

The honoring ceremony was held at Al-Assad National Library in Damascus.

For the first category (ages under 18 years), the gold award was awarded to Haneen Salim (Latakia), the silver award was given equally to Ibrahim Ahmed (Latakia) and the nicknamed the Son of Syria (Raqqa), and the bronze award was also awarded equally to Loujain Al-Lahham (Damascus) and Bisher Hamed (Hama).

The second category award (for ages between 19  and 30), the golden award was awarded to Mahmoud Haidar (rural Damascus), the silver award to Rabih Hamisha (Latakia), and the bronze award was awarded equally to Moaz Jabara (Idlib) and Zainab Al-Habash (Deir ez-Zor).

As for the third category (for ages 31 to 45), the gold award was won by Ahmed Hallaq (Idlib), the silver award was given to Mutaym Al-Ali (Tartous), and the bronze award was awarded equally to Ola Mahmoud (Hama) and Firdous Numan (Tartus).

For the fourth category (for ages over 45), the gold award was awarded to Iman Al-Daraa (Damascus countryside), the silver award was awarded equally to Moein Saleh (Homs) and Taliah Al-Sayyah (Deir ez-Zor), and the bronze award was given to Sulaf Al-Salamah (Homs).

In her speech, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of “Wathiqat Watan” Foundation, affirmed that Syria, which lived through years of war, is continuing to write the stories of unknown soldiers who sacrificed each in their field to document what their homeland experienced.

She announced the success of the Foundation in opening a training center that will produce true experts in oral history, research, editing, design, and everything that contributes to supporting this project, thanking the professors on the judging committee and the members of the Board of Trustees of the  Foundation for their efforts.

Jury representative Nabil Saleh stressed that the criterion for evaluating the winning story focused on the importance of the event that the narrator lived and his role in it, indicating that this type of writing is not classified as literature, but rather a different type that focuses on documenting real life away from literary standards.

The event included screening an introductory film about the Foundation and a short film of interviews with the winners of past competitions, the distribution of prizes to the winners, and certificates of appreciation to members of the jury.

It is noteworthy that “This is My Story” award was approved by the Foundation as an annual award, and is considered one of the Foundation’s projects that aim to encourage documentary writing of facts and to spread the culture of oral history.