Philipsburg:--- Fourteen year old Joshua Hodge of the St. Maarten Academy emerged winner of the letter writing competition sponsored by Nieuwe Post Netherlands Antilles. Director of Nieuwe Post St Maarten Denicio Richardson told reporters at the prize giving ceremony on Thursday that this is the first time the Netherlands Antilles participated in the letter writing competition both in the Antilles as well as the 39th International Letter Writing Competition of the Universal Postal Union in Switzerland. The letter written by Hodge was selected to represent the Netherlands Antilles in Switzerland.Participants of the competition were asked to write a letter to someone explaining to them why it is important to talk about HIV/Aids and to protect themselves from the disease.
Richardson said the International competition which is held annually is sponsored by the United Nations (UNAIDS) the World Heath Organization(WHO) and UNI Global Union all of whom are cooperating with the United Postal Union (UPU).
Richardson said invitations were sent to all Primary and Secondary Schools in the Netherlands Antilles and the participants of the contest had to be between the ages of 12 to 15 years old. He said a total of 28 schools participated and they submitted 86 letters of which 32 were from St. Maarten.
Two of the three winners are from St. Maarten namely Joshua Hodge of the St. Maarten Academy and Kimberly Williams of the ACE Foundation who captured the second prize. While the third prize went to Shaan Mahtani of Curacao. Hodge received a laptop as the first prize winner while Williams a Naf. 50 Windward Islands Debit Card and Mahtani a package of movie tickets.Richardson said one of the reasons the United Postal Union and its sponsors chose the team HIV/AIDS was because of the current statics on persons living with HIV/ AIDS. Currently there are 33 million people that were infected with the deadly disease, while there are 7, 400 new cases reported daily, with 45% of these cases are between the ages of 15 and 24.
Accompanying the winners of the competition at the ceremony were the parents of Joshua Hodge, and his school principal Shareed Hussain, and the teacher of Kimberly Williams.
At the ceremony the first prize winner Joshua Hodge was asked what motivated him to write a letter on HIV/ Aids and he responded by saying that he wanted to share his personal experience with others. Hodge explained that he lost an uncle who was a gold miner to the disease as he was infected with a contaminated syringe. He said HIV/AIDS robbed him of the opportunity of ever meeting his uncle. Joshua Hodge is the son of internet journalist Bibi Hodge Shaw and Alain Hodge.
In concluding Denicio Richardson of Nieuwe Post said to young Hodge that he hoped that he would bring home the bacon from Switzerland as he did from the Antilles. He was also advised to use his laptop to further enhance his education.
