Voicebox contest winner helps young Scarborough voices be heard

By JULIA SAWICKI

Afshen Insha, a 13-year-old student from Taylor Creek Public School , has been announced as the winner of the summer VoiceBox contest.

VoiceBox began as a creative project by Manha Islam, a Scarborough highschooler who wanted to give young people a chance to share their stories, poetry, art and voices with the community.

This summer, the prompt was “What does fairness mean to you?”

Insha’s poem, Room for Everyone, was chosen by Islam among countless other entries. The poem talks about how fairness isn’t about treating everyone exactly the same but rather making sure that nobody is left out.

“I chose her poem as the winning piece because I could tell it speaks from the heart. When reviewing the entries, grammar or spelling errors did not matter to me at all; it was all about the message being conveyed,” wrote Manha to Beach Metro Community News.

“Afshen captured the exact essence of what fairness looks like to her. Her poem was real, personal and stuck with me, perfectly representing why young voices in Scarborough deserve to be heard.”

Room for Everyone

By Afshen Insha

Fairness is not a tape measure.

Or cutting a pie into equal slices.

Its noticing who is standing on their tippy toes

Just to see over the fence,

And handing them a wooden crate.

It’s holding the door open

When someone’s hands are full,

And making sure the truth and dare circle in the sand pit

Has a spot for the kid standing near the bench.

It means listening to the queitest voice in the room

Until it fills the whole room.

Fairness does not ask us to be identical.

It asks us to build a space

Big enough for everyone to sit together.