A GROUP of seven talented youngsters have been nominated for their writing and performance skills.


The youngsters, aged eight to 16, from WAPPY (Writing, Acting and Publishing Project for Youngsters) were put forward by its founder and director, Grace Quansah.


She said: “I have had the privilege of working with such a varied group of talented youngsters.


“Harnessing the interest of teenagers to continue attending WAPPY can be challenging in the face of competition from social networking like Facebook or playing computer games from home.”


She added: “From day one, Kieran Ross’s (16) poetry, often reflecting a spiritual outlook on life, blew me away.  This young person was a deep thinker, displayed and continues to convey astuteness far beyond his years. This is partly attributable to the fact that he has mercifully survived cancer in his infancy.


“Yasmin Allawi (16) has blossomed like a rose to unveil petals of raw talent, humour and is particularly patient with younger peers in our sessions.


“Maisa Abed (12) is an all-rounder who works so hard and is an outstanding writer, whose name I predict will make it into the history books in the not so distant future.


“Majd Mansour (eight) is a young person who is very politically aware of the crisis that has unfolded in his country of origin, as demonstrated by the very moving and poignant poetry and artwork, both titled ‘Syria’, he produced and performed, which brought both his mother and me to tears.


“Izoje Owaka’s (11) writings are often on a deeply personal theme, at times inspired by the premature loss of her beloved aunt.
“Effie Quansah-George (nine) is a consistent little helper when setting up and packing up the workshops and Maia Hicks (nine) is way beyond her years in how she expresses herself both on paper and verbally.”


WAPPY was launched in 2008 as a literary initiative to work with young people from multi-ethnic backgrounds, and teach  them the skills to showcase and perform their work, much of which has been published.