May ’25 Poetry Contest — Hunger: No One's Friend, Rather Everyone's Fight

Ever gone to bed hungry and woken up the same way, with no hope of food? If yes, you know how helpless and terrible that feeling is, right?

In 2023, FAO gave an estimate of 690 million people worldwide suffering from hunger. A large portion of them are recognized as children. The month of May holds several globally recognized days, one of which is World Hunger Day. 

To raise awareness about WHD, Yemipoet challenged her audience to raise their voices through poetry to fight against Hunger, not just as a contest, but to the end, so that Zero Hunger becomes a reality in the hearts of everyone. No child and no one deserves to face hunger. 

The contest instructions were clear and straightforward for any poet to hop on: “Use your voice to fight hunger and demand Zero Hunger. Write an original 6-line poem that sparks change.”

Submission Link and Deadline
IG Handle: @yemipoet

Poets were instructed to submit their poems as comments under the May Poetry Contest flyer post on Instagram. The contest was officially announced on May 1, with the submission deadline set for May 6. Before the close of the window, we received a total of 195 poems in the comment session. 

Four Judges, 10 Selections 
A Wide Audience, Three Winners
To arrive at our goal of selecting and recognizing three winners with outstanding works that spark change and inspire people to take action against hunger, four judges were appointed to evaluate all 195 entries.

The judging panel included Odusina Oreoluwa, Bello Michael Oluwatimileyin, Adetule Oluwapelumi and Okafor Esther.

Before the final selection of the top three winners by our audience, the four judging panel recognized 10 outstanding works from 195 entries. 

After selecting these 10 works, we engaged our Instagram audience to comment the name of their top poet from the list. The three poets with the highest number of votes were then announced as the winners in the first, second and third order. 

Winners Spotlight and Cash Award

Joseph Daniel - First place 

Jesuyimika Dominion - Second place 

Tolu Oladokun - Third place. 

A cash award of ₦75,000 was shared among the winners.  Zero Hunger is achievable globally—but only if you and I play our parts. The ball has always been in our court, not just in the hands of government officials. What part are you playing today? 

Appreciation 

It's always a delight to have our indispensable poets participate with us. To our audience, thank you for being a part of May’s contest in such a significant way! 

We hope to see you in June.