OWCC 2017-18 will soon be underway, thanks to the generous sponsorship of AFD Software Ltd. of Ramsey. I will be coming round to visit all Year 12 students soon, to launch the scheme for this year, and I look forward to meeting everyone.

Joel Smith, School Improvement Adviser for the Department of Education and Children, has very kindly offered to put together some activities to help the students learn about International Development and to encourage them to participate in the OWCC. This should be a great opportunity and really interesting for everyone.

Helen

OWCC Project Officer

We had a great final at the Manx Museum last week, held in front of an invited audience which included the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister. The competition was extremely close and the judges had a really difficult time in reaching their decision! The judges said that it was clear that the OWCC raised awareness of international development in schools and were very impressed with the overall quality of the presentations.

The results were:

• Ramsey Grammar School – St George Foundation – awarded £1,200
• Ballakermeen High School – Powerful Information – awarded £1,200
• Castle Rushen High School – Pahar Trust – awarded £1,200
• QEII High School – African Promise – awarded £1,700
• King William’s College team I – Drop Inn Ministries – £1,700 awarded plus £250 for creativity of fundraising – an amazing £2,500 was raised by the team who had undertaken various fundraising activities including a ‘walk for water’ and a talent show -total awarded £1,950
• King William’s College team II – Excellent Development – £1,700 awarded plus £250 audience prize totalling £1,950 – overall winners (by a very narrow margin!) – awarded the Frances Davidson cup

Well done again to everyone who took part and a big thank you as well to everyone who helped out on the night. A huge thank you in particular to the H and S Davidson Trust who have so generously sponsored the event for the last ten years and welcome and thanks to our new sponsors, AFD Software Ltd. of Ramsey, whose generous offer of sponsorship will enable the OWCC to continue in to the future.

Helen, Project Officer

A closely fought in-school competition took place at Ballakermeen last night, with a team representing Powerful Information, a charity which helps to develop skills in low income countries through the use of ICT, being chosen to represent the school for the last available place in the final which takes place on Wednesday 29th March at the Manx Museum. All the teams gave really powerful and informative presentations last night, with over £2,000 being awarded to the charities represented.

We had a very interesting presentation about the work of the Port St John charity, a football based charity which works in Africa, yesterday. On the basis of this very informative presentation it was decided to award £500 to the work of this charity – well done!

We had a really informative competition at QEII yesterday, with the girls’ team representing African Promise, a new charity to the Charity Challenge, and the boys’ team representing the International Refugee Trust. After a lot of deliberation by the judges, the girls’ team was chosen to go through to the final and the team representing the International Refugee Trust were awarded £500 towards the great work carried out by their charity from the grant fund. The girls’ team has also raised around £400 so far for their charity through their fundraising efforts, including a (very cold) sponsored New Year dip. Well done to everyone involved in both teams, it was clear that you had all put in a lot of effort!

Helen, Project Officer

We had a very close in-school competition at CRHS last week, with two teams giving very informative presentations about the work of their chosen charities, Grace Third World Fund and the Pahar Trust. After a great deal of deliberation by the judges, the team representing the Pahar Trust was chosen to go through to the final at the Manx Museum on the evening of Wednesday 29th March and the team representing Grace Third World Fund were awarded £500 from the prize fund for the work of their charity. Well done to all involved!

Helen, Project Officer

We had a great in-school competition at Ramsey Grammar School yesterday, with one more team now having been chosen to represent their charity at Final at the Manx Museum on Wednesday 29th March. All the teams did really well, giving presentations that showed enthusiasm for the work of their charities and providing a great deal of information about that work. The fundraising at Ramsey was phenomenal with two teams raising around £500 each to go towards the life changing work of their charities, Ro-Man-Aid and Global Action Nepal. These teams were also awarded £500 each by the judges from the prize funds for the work of their charities. The team chosen to go through to the final was the team representing the St George Foundation, a charity working with Ebola orphans in Sierra Leone.

Well done to everyone involved!

Helen, Project Officer

The date for the final of the One World Charity Challenge 2016-17 has now been announced. It will take place on the evening of Wednesday 29th March at the Manx Museum, time to be confirmed. Rehearsals will take place on Tuesday 28th March during the daytime, also at the Manx Museum.

Good luck to all the teams and I hope that you all have a great Christmas!

Helen, Project Officer

The in-school competition at King William’s College last Tuesday was a great success, with a record number of ten teams participating. To enable the charities represented to have a chance of being awarded the greater amount of funding available at the final, it was decided that charities represented by two teams from King William’s College would be chosen to go through to the final. These were:

• Drop Inn Ministries – the  team also raised an amazing £800 and were awarded an additional £100 from the overall prize fund for the most funds raised at the in-school competition
• Excellent Development

Well done to both these teams and indeed to all the teams participating, who raised substantial amounts of funds for the charities that they were representing and were also awarded £400 or £800 towards the work of their charities from the overall prize fund.

The teams demonstrated a great deal of enthusiasm for the work of their respective charities and also came up with some very innovative fundraising ideas!

Helen, OWCC Project Officer

Teams are now hard at work researching their chosen charities and starting to think about how to put the information that they find together to create a lively, innovative, multi-media presentation lasting 10-12 minutes about the work of their charities. The first in-school competition, held to decide which teams will be going through to the final at the Manx Museum in March (date to be announced shortly) will be held at King William’s College on 6th December, with most other schools holding their in-school competitions in January.

Teams will be researching  in particular how their chosen charity has helped to improve the life of a young person and how their charity is working towards the Sustainable Development Goals, a UN framework for international development, aimed at alleviating global poverty.

Good luck to the teams with researching your charities and putting together your presentations!

Helen, OWCC Project Officer