The second edition of Shal’Artem #3StepDanceChallenge has produced winners in different stages.  The winners were announced by the organisers of the competition,  Shalina Healthcare Nigeria  onTuesday in Lagos.

The competition, according to the organisers; “is a social initiative primarily to raise awareness about malaria.”  had a good number of contestants winning different amounts of cash prizes.

Speaking on the process of the challenge while unveiling the winners,the Brand Manager, Analgesic and Anti- Malaria, Shalina Healthcare Nigeria,  Chiuba Nwaosu said the “4-week long challenge witnessed tons of entry every week where ten winners emerged every week for four weeks making a total of forty winners before they were streamlined into top ten.”

According to him,  “last year we thought we had done it all,  but this year, it is phenomenal and above the roof. Entries were three times more than what we had in the previous year. In fact,  we had a difficult job of picking the weekly winners as the country is blessed with a lot of talent.

The final winners emerged after a series of online voting following the week 5 dance off with online poll contributing 50% of the vote and Judges accounting for the other 50%.

It was all joy at the grand Finale when the seven-man dancing team,  known as @reflex_studio emerged the  grand prize winner and went home with a sum of one million naira, while @Prisca. ancient and @Blessing Essien emerged the first and second runners up winning a sum of five hundred thousand naira and two hundred thousand naira respectively.

Expressing the joy of winning,  a member of @reflex_studio team, Owoicho Daniel Douglas said; “it is a dream come true. I appreciate the organisers for providing the opportunity. I am very grateful to Shalina and feel privileged to have won the competition out of different talents that participated. It’s not easy to emerge a winner.”

Also showing appreciation to the organisers of the competition while congratulating the winners,  the brand  ambassador of Shal’Artem, popular comedian and skit maker,  Animashaun Perry,  better known as Broda Shaggi said; “Shalina deserves the commendation of all and sundry for creating great opportunity for the teeming Nigerian youths to showcase their talents. It is also good to note that the company is doing it in a spectacular way by creating awareness about a desease like malaria, which is generally taken for granted,  but  very deadly.  I congratulate all the winners and I say thanks to Shalina for spreading the message and the opportunity given to me to be part of it.”

Meanwhile in his welcome speech at the event, the Chief Commercial Officer Pharma Business West Africa, Shalina Healthcare Nigeria, Arun Raj described the company as a corporate entity that is poised to go the extra mile to give back to the people and provide opportunity for its consumers to achieve their dreams.

“The challenge is not  just about giving prizes but driving the purpose of ensuring talents are discovered and well rewarded. Ordinarily as a pharmaceutical company,  we shouldn’t have anything to do with an idea like this,  but we are raising the bar in corporate social responsibility.”  He said.

Speaking further, Arun said; malaria is one of the deadliest diseases in the world.  According to statistics, millions of people die of malaria in the world annually and ninety six  percent of the deaths are in Africa.. We are using this avenue to raise awareness and communicate to people on a better way to treat the disease using a 3 days dosage regimen of Shal’Artem, our brand of Antimalaria . We are therefore using Broda Shaggy’s popularity among the youth populace to create awareness and communicate this to the public. At Shalina our mission is to save lives. Today,  when people are talking about price increases everywhere, we at Shalina are reducing prices of our products. Our vision is to always provide quality medicine that are affordable and available across Africa”