Talented Fatima Ramadhan has won high praise and first place in a nationwide digital story competition and hopes her tale of Bahrain will lighten up the hearts of everyone who lives in the kingdom.
The Um Al Qura Primary and Intermediate Girls School student picked up the top accolade in the intermediate level of the ‘Digital story about loving your country’ contest.
It attracted entries from more than 20 pupils representing seven public schools and her online book called ‘Al Bahrain Noor Alain’ wowed the judges.
“I feel proud. It made me so happy to win a major event, especially as it was part of the Bahraini National Day Festival,” said the 12-year-old from West Eker. “Al Bahrain Noor Alain means ‘Bahrain is the light of our eyes’ and it took me one week to write and design the story and then record it.
“What made my entry unique was perhaps the love and hard effort that I put into making it. It truly describes the love I have for my country in the shape of a story.”
Her tale features two characters, named Lulwa and Dana, sharing what Bahrain means to them, why they love the kingdom so much and how they express their feelings with other students in their class.
This is not the first time that Fatima has mastered the art of digital storytelling. She has already completed six school projects, one for her English class called ‘Granny Sarah’ and one for her computer course which she entitled ‘Access’.
She also created four for her Arabic class called ‘The National Saudi Day’, ‘Battery’, a poem called ‘My Country’ alongside a grammar lesson.
Now she is learning to complete her school projects using programmes such as Animaker and Minecraft Education Edition with even more success.
The schoolgirl thanked the Education Ministry for giving her ‘this opportunity’, as well as the school for ‘embracing her talents and motivating her to improve her creativity’.
“I also want to thank our head teacher Huda Abd Al Rahman Al Thawadi and all my teachers, especially, my Arabic teacher Sharifa Sayed Salman Nasser,” she added. “She motivated me to create stories in the Storyjumper platform and present them in Microsoft Teams for all the class to enjoy. She supported me throughout the semester which was a great help when it came to winning first place.”
Storyjumper is a popular tool for creating storybooks. It is easy to use for students of all ages and it can help them create their very own editions using their imaginations.
Friends hope her winning book will soon be translated into English for an expatriate audience to enjoy.
Visit https://www.storyjumper.com/book/read/119950052/61ab1de34e086, to read her story.
mai.alkhatib@gulfweekly.com
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