Five women have been shortlisted as winners of the Flexi the Caterpillar Story Writing Competition organised by Pampers. The competition called “Once Upon a Time Flexi the Caterpillar...” drew an overwhelming number of submissions with over 300 stories and confirms the avid interest of parents both in taking an active part in the lives of their children, and also in their holistic development.

The winners have been chosen by a panel of judges who included the well-known author of children’s literature, Trevor Zahra, as well as representatives from Procter and Gamble in Geneva. They are Deborah Schembri Tabone, Valerie Scerri, Mariosa Camilleri, Ursula West, and Emily Farrugia. The winners have each clinched one year’s supply of Pampers Flex Baby Dry products. Since one of the winners – Ursula West – does not have young children, she will be donating the prize to the Millennium Chapel.

The stories submitted were chosen for their originality, style, and theme. The outstanding stories showed fresh and highly original descriptions of how the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. They also used simple words and easy sentences. Moreover they had interesting themes woven indirectly in the stories, such as friendship, patience, obedience and generosity, without being overly moralistic.

The winning stories will be fine tuned by Mr Zahra, and published and distributed with Pampers products in supermarkets and major outlets. Pampers has also organised a workshop with Mr Zahra for the winners. This will serve as a tutoring session on how the writers could have improved their stories.

Pampers devotes significant research and innovation to developing the diapering technology that helps babies sleep comfortably. Through this initiative Pampers wanted to generate more awareness among parents on the importance of sleep in a baby’s development by linking the product to bed-time reading. The initiative was a success thanks to a great participation of consumers who wrote wonderful stories.