2008 Essay Contest
February 12, 2008 · Print This Article
“Compassion and the Child with Disabilities” Students around the world are invited to participate in the fourth annual Oakseed Ministries essay contest. In 2008, the essay contest will bring attention to children with disabilities worldwide, through the topic of compassion and children with disabilities. Fact.About 650 million people live with a disability in the world, 80 percent of those live in developing countries.
Fact.Ninety percent of children with disabilities living in developing countries do not attend school.
Fact.The issues facing children with disabilities in the world are often overlooked.
Fact.Your voice matters.
This year, you will have the opportunity to engage in learning more about conditions facing children with disabilities and to reflect on those issues by addressing one of seven different essay subtopics. The essay subtopics are available under Essay Contest Guidelines. The deadline for the essay contest is April 15, 2008. A first place of $1,000 will be awarded. The essay contest is a part of a yearlong effort to raise awareness of this issue and will culminate in the Annual Day of Prayer for Children at Risk on June 1, 2008.
I am a 17 year old African-American female suffering from a life-threatening illness called Lupus. I have been battling this illness since the age of nine. When my mother and I first started trying to figure out what was wrong with me, because I wouldn’t eat or play, all I wanted to do was sleep and complained of pain all the time. My skin color had even started to change, so my mother took me to a doctor who said my complaining was an effort to get attention due to the new baby. This doctor had never ran any test to support this, so I had to endure several more weeks of pain until my visit arrived to see Dr. Carrington. After examining me, Dr. Carrington had me rushed to Howard University Hospital.
At Howard, they discovered I had Lupus and the disease had started to attack my immune system so my body was shutting down. They put me on so much medication and on the highest mg my body could take to ease the pain and get my body’s defense system back up. They told my mother if we had waited any longer I could have died. After that visit, the hospital had became my home because I was there more than I was at my actual home. This was because the pain continued and my body was having different reactions to the medicines they put me on. One of the medicines caused my face to swell and my eyes nearly to close all the way and another one caused me to gain so much weight. Over the next three years I had missed so much school from going to doctors visits, to the hospital or just been at home because I couldn’t get out of the bed.
When I was in the fourth grade I had brain swelling which caused me to be in a coma for a while. The doctors still don’t know if it came from a mosquito bite or the swimming pool. The apartment complex where I lived had a swimming pool, so my family and I went swimming on one occasion, after returning from swimming I complained of head pains so my mother told me to take a bath and relax if I didn’t fill any better in the morning we would go to Howard. The next morning we went to Howard the doctors said it was a regular head ache just give me something for pain. That night I slept in the bed with my mother and little sister , this was a parent’s worst nightmare to wake up to.
My mother woke up because my little sister was crying, this is when she found my 104 degree body stretched out over my little sister. My mother called my name and said get off of Koby, she then rolled me over because I was not responding to find foam coming out of my mouth and my eyes rolled to the back of my head. She called 911 they came and they rushed me to Washington Adventist hospital, there they said I wouldn’t make it so call the family, my mother screamed and said to keep me on life support because she was not signing any papers. At the time they did not have a pediatric doctor to deal with my case so they flew me over to Children’s Hospital there I started responding a little after several days there. The doctors told my mother if I did make it I would be a vegetable or mentally challenged, I came through fully but had to learn to use my muscles all over again, because I was too weak to even feed myself.
From 5th grade through the 7th grade most of my time was spent mainly in a wheelchair, kids laughed and called me names but with the help of family, teachers, and some friends I over came all of the teasing. Once I got to high school I thought my health had took a turn for the better, but my 10th grade year I had to have a kidney biopsy done. The doctor who released me said to go home relax and drink plenty of fluids. The day after being released I was scheduled to take my SAT’s and my mother had to work, so my older sister and I took the bus. After getting half way down the block the lower side of my stomach started to hurt, so my sister ran and held the bus so we wouldn’t be late. I was in pain during the whole test but managed to get through it because I am determined to succeed. After getting home from the test, I stayed in bed for half the week. During my 11th and some of 12th grade I was put on chemo, which made me sick and sleepy. I thought I had enough going on with the Lupus, AVN, joint pains, and skin breakouts but recently I had to add high blood pressure to the list which adds another medicine I have to take.
To help me through everything is my two sisters and my mother. My mother is a single parent of three. She just got out of a bad situation that caused her to start over again from barely anything. My mother has been working a lot of over time to save up some money. I know trying to have her pay for the tuition its no way she can afford it. She has been really stressed trying to figure out how to pay the rest of the tuition because every time she thinks she has a little put away another bill needs to be paid or she has to buy food. Mother has even broken down crying sometimes, but as a family we pull together and get through it. Last week my mother had to take off again because of my illness, this time I had trouble breathing. The doctors said I had fluid around my heart and lungs.
I had two aunts with Lupus, one who is in the early stage of it and one who has died. When my aunt died it tore the whole family up, me especially because I was over there everyday even when she was hospitalized for a whole month straight. I was also scared because I have the same illness she died with. The hardest thing was to tell my grandparents because it was my grandfather’s birthday. I am dealing with it, even though it’s hard not knowing what tomorrow has in store for me. All of these thing that has went on in my life has inspired me to go to school and find a cure for this disease or even help young people find it in the early stage so they won’t have to endure everything my family and I have encountered. I believe I can do this at Columbia Union College with the help of a scholarship. With your help I can make this dream come true and later down the line someone else’s as well. If you can’t help me can you PLEASE refer me to someone who can.
Hello. Wow. Your story has inspired me a lot. I have MS and im also in and out of the hospitial. At first i was having painful seziures to vomiting in which caused massive weight loss but unfortunatley i gained it all back + more when i had to take steroids. Please Get in contact with me because you are truly a trooper.
I had a question pertaining to the 2008 essay contest. I was curious as to what this ministry considers a disability. My state board of education considers social emotional disorders as well as specific learning disabilities to qualify a student to be placed in a special education program, indicating that they have a disability. If someone could give me a little insight here it would be most appreciated thanks so much!!
Chelsea,
Disability doesn’t have to be physical, it can be emotional. This essay contest is geared to getting students to wrestle with the understanding of compassion and disability. As to what determines disability, we leave that up to you as the essay writer.
Benjamin
Mr. Bradley,
Thank you very much!!! I really appreciate your response.
Chelsea
do you have to have a disability to enter this contest?
Dalton,
No you do not have to have a disability in order to enter the essay contest. You only need to address the topic. Compassion and the Child with Disability. On the Essay contest page (http://www.oakseed.org/essay-contest/) you will see seven different topics to focus on.
Benjamin
I just wanted to know how many scholarships are available. My son is interested but because his disability is related to learning and writing, I know it is not easy for him to write something that sounds gramatically correct. Since there is little time left, it may not be worth for him to write an essay, especially if competiting w/ students that do not have his disabilities and if there is only 1 available. Thanks and keep up the good work. This is a great ministy.
Diana,
There are two age categories and in each age category there is a first place ($1000), a second place ($500), and honorable mention ($250). In the past years, sometimes there are multiple honorable mentions.
Sir,
I just tried to submit my essay through the online link, but my internet connection failed just as I clicked “Submit.” I don’t know if the essay did in fact submit, and I’m afraid of people thinking I’ve submitted two essays. Is there any way to find out? (If I don’t get a response before midnight my time, I’ll probably just try to submit it again.)
Thank you,
Rebecca
Rebecca,
I checked and we received your essay submission. Thank you.
For anyone else…
If you are having any trouble submitting essays, you can send the essay with all the required information directly to Erin at (erinw@oakseed.org)
Thank you.
I just submitted my essay on-line. I received a message that said “submission accepted” or some similar message. However, the acceptance happened so fast, that I have concerns about whether it really uploaded my essay. Can you please confirm that you have everything you need? Thanks!
Yes Rachel, we did receive your essay. We’ve got a nice fast web server, so it handles the essay submissions quickly.
I just submitted my essay, but then at the bottom of the page it said it had to be double spaced! I went back through my essay and tired to re-submit it and I don’t know if the website took it! Help!
Jasmin, We’ve got your essay. Thanks for taking the time to write your essay.
thanks! is it the double spaced one or the first incorrect one? Because I submitted two- but the first one was wrong
Hi, I read that the deadline to submit online is by 11:59 PM today, but I was curious what timezone that applies to? Thank you for your time!
It applies to your individual timezone. The website logs when you submit an essay and from what part of the world you are submitting the essay. So if you are on the West Coast of the United States, you can submit your essay at 11:59PM (local time).
I didn’t see the requirement till I sent mine in… It is not 1000 words..So what should I do?
Will you send confirmation of receipt of the essay? If so did you receive my submission.
Thank you.
I have my essay finished, and it’s exactly 1,000 words, but what is more important, the word count or the character count? And, does the character count include spaces? Also, since I have 1,000 words, and I don’t want to go over the limit, I wrote my word count as a footer on the last page. Is this alright?
Hello. I am anxious to hear the results. I do realize it may be several months from now, but when will they be posted? Thanks!
I submitted my essay last night 8/15/08. I now notice that my word-count on the bottom of the page was missing on the uploaded copy. Does this disqualify me or can I re-submit it today?
Thank you for your response.
Mallory - No, your submission will be fine. There is no need to resubmit your essay.
Everyone else - I’ll be posting updates and more information hopefully later today or tomorrow.
Can I ask if my essay was accepted because I haven’t received confirmation on my email?
i was just wondering if my essay was accepted because I haven’t seen it confirmed on my email Thanks. It was called the image of prayer.
Stanley,
Yes your essay was accepted, other than that, its hard for me to tell where your essay is in the process. Each essay is assigned a number and the judging is a “blind judging” process. This way, no one knows whose essay they are judging.
Benjamin