Pen Story 2023
Find out about our Children’s local language story writing project called Pen Story.

Featured content: PEN STORY PROJECT
Background
In January 2023, Fluent Zambia launched a children’s local language story writing initiative, which we called the Pen Story. We invited children below the age of 16 to write short stories in their mother tongues and submit them. The stories were to be 500 words or less in length and were to be written entirely in a local language of the child’s choice. Our primary objective with this project was to identify children who had story writing abilities which we could harness, particularly in the local languages. Awards and recognition were given to the most outstanding stories.
Awards
Children who wrote the best stories were to receive some awards and certificates of recognition. The award presentation was scheduled for 21st February 2023. This was done in order for the award presentation to coincide with the International Mother Language Day (IMLD).
Winning Criteria
The winning stories had to meet the following grading criteria:
- Language purity: how well a child knows the language, as demonstrated by their use of native words, without mixing with words borrowed from other languages.
- Creativity: what the story is all about; is it based on animation or real-life events; what lesson does it teach, etc.
- coherence: how well a child is able to put the story together, in a way that would be understandable to a reader.
The Project’s Rationale
The Pen Story project is aimed at addressing the challenge of reading and writing in local languages among children. This is important because:
- A child’s ability to read and comprehend a local language has a significant bearing on their ability to learn any subject in school.
- A child’s ability to immediately associate written text with a language they already understand will speed up their comprehension and shorten the learning curve.
The project also helped us to understand (1) how children interpret reading and writing in local languages, (2) what level of written language they resonate with, and (3) how they view the world around them.
Highlights of the Project
- Out of 57 shortlisted children, seven were selected to attend a one-day poetry and story writing workshop
- The workshop was held on Saturday 18th February 2023, at Kalulu Kreative Center for the Arts and Culture
- The children were trained in story writing, poetry and public speaking.
- Three stories were selected as the best stories, based on creativity, coherence, and above all, language purity.
- The most outstanding story was a short story in Chitonga, written by Christine, a shy but intelligent 12-year-old girl, who speaks chitonga as her mother tongue. This story will be published online on our website.
- During the workshop, the children also developed short speeches in their local languages which they presented three days later, during the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) celebrations.
- On Tuesday, 21st February 2023, the children attended the IMLD celebrations held at the University of Zambia, where all the children gave their presentations, while Christine presented her short story in Chitonga.
- At the end of the program, the children received awards in the form of books, pens, pencils, mathematical sets, and other school material, as well as certificates of recognition for their workshop training and their story writing abilities.
Outcomes of the Project
The project was successful. A detailed report and case study based on this project can be found here. This year’s project was restricted to children from Lusaka District, but future projects will include other districts and provinces. Plans are under way for 2024.