Daša won third prize with her letter, in which is she writing to herself – a young girl called Daša in 2047. She writes about the life she wants in the future, and intertwines her thoughts with an imaginary experience of meeting a refugee.

Almost a hundred thousand children and young people from 64 countries took part in the competition, and wrote letters to their future selves in 2047. Daša decided to write about a refugee and their shared fates. She chose this theme together with her mentor, Nataša Podhostnik.

She begins her letter to the future Daša with the question "How is life in 2047?", providing the answer right away as she first reminds readers of our indifference to the everyday struggles of others. The letter is forceful and often relentless: "A war can continue, or it can stop. There are no other options.” Despite her young age, Daša is aware that world peace cannot be built on hatred: “Only when it is all over do we realise that we cannot destroy hate with hate, just as we cannot overcome darkness with darkness." Daša accepts human imperfections, but wishes there was a greater desire and more will from all of us to achieve better understanding: "But of course we will never be able to get rid of all the bad things: even when the sun is shining, shadows remain."

She and the boy wish for a compassionate world
Daša's story begins simply enough. "It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was taking some old clothes to a nearby charity organisation that was involved in distributing them to war refugees." There she meets a boy of her age who is dirty, scared and unhappy. The boy offers to help when he sees that Daša does not know her way around the overcrowded refugee camp, showing her the clothing collection centre. Although they are initially separated by their differences and natural restraint, they soon begin to talk.

Daša listens to the boy attentively and respectfully. He tells her the story of how he and his family fled from their homeland because of war, how they had to travel a long way and hide from the police so they would not be separated. He also tells her that he still encounters hatred in this country, even though he has already arrived at the destination he desired. After listening to the boy's story, Daša concludes: "Even now, when he was on the way to becoming a fully entitled citizen, just like me, he encountered nasty looks and abuse wherever he went. Every time he turned on the television in his rented flat, he would witness the same scene. Irrational fear of people like him, simply because they came from the same direction as the enemy."

Daša would like to live in a new, more beautiful world that will tolerate differences and not try to push all people into one ideal version of being human. She wishes for an environment where everyone will feel safe. Somewhere there is no room for the stereotypes and prejudices that make it impossible for us to live alongside each other in peace and instead force us apart, each of us living among our own, until all the hatred comes into the open. "A world where I will be able to say to my children that when I was thirteen years old I lived among people who were willing to help the needy, and unite to form a solid whole that no evil could separate."

Daša concludes her award-winning letter as follows: "As I write this letter I am full of conflicting feelings, since reason tells me that my hopes for the future are too beautiful to be realistic. Deep inside me I feel that all my wishes for peace in the world cannot be fulfilled." She says goodbye with: "Yours hopefully, Daša, 13 years." Let us hope her wishes come true.

Her achievement was celebrated by many Slovenians
After receiving the award, which was brought to the school by Director of the International Mail Division at the Post of Slovenia, Marjan Osvald, Daša's story circulated in the media and listeners of the Val 202 radio station chose her as the focus of the regular Name of the Week feature. The Minister of Education, Science and Sport, Maja Makovec Brenčič, also congratulated Daša, and the Ministry published her letter on its website.

She is also thinking about the near future
As well as 2047, this ninth-grader is also thinking about her near future. After finishing elementary school she will enrol in the Črnomelj high school. At the present she does not know what subject she will chose at the university level, although "definitely something in the field of natural sciences," she said. And what does Daša do in her free time? She likes to read and dance in the Dragatuš youth folklore group.

Like most other young people, Daša does not usually write letters; however, she likes to write postcards and greeting cards, and wrote a lot of them during the festive month of December, mainly to her relatives. Moreover, this year her greeting cards had special value, since they were sent by a student who had written the third best letter in the world.

Nataša Gerkeš, Tanja Glogovčan, Sinfo