A letter about Santa Claus written by an eighth grader in Hai Duong province has won the first prize of the 47th International Letter-Writing Competition for Young People in Vietnam.

Nguyen Thi Bach Duong (centre), an eighth grader at the Nguyen Trai Junior High School in Hai Duong province, is presented with the first prize of the contest

Nguyen Thi Bach Duong, an eighth grader at the Nguyen Trai Junior High School in Nam Sach district, Hai Duong province, won the top prize of the contest, which was launched globally by the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

The Corporation of Vietnam Post Office (Vietnam Post) and the Thieu nien Tien phong newspaper held a ceremony in Hanoi on May 11 to present prizes to the winners.

This year’s contest is themed "Imagine you are a letter travelling through time. What message do you wish to convey to your readers?"

In her letter, Duong imagined herself to be a real letter which was written by an editor of The Sun newspaper of the US in 1987 to reply to the question “Is there a Santa Claus?” asked by an eight-year-old reader. 

With a natural, pure and humane writing style, the letter combined messages calling for love and respect for children along with attention to disadvantaged and unprotected children. It makes readers think about a world free of wars, violence, poverty and injustice.

This letter has been translated into French and English to be sent to the UPU, based in Switzerland, to take part in the international competition.

The contest in Vietnam from October 2017 to March 2018 attracted more than 1 million entries from nationwide. The judges awarded one first prize, three second prizes, five third prizes and 30 consolation prizes to the best entries.

Sixty-one sub-prizes were also presented to encourage promising letter writers and four others were granted to the youngest participant and those with disabilities.

Vietnam became a member of the UPU in 1976 and has taken part in the UPU letter writing contest since 1987. Vietnamese students won prizes at the international competition for 13 times, including two first prizes, one second prize, three third prizes, and seven consolation prizes.-VNA