The Meet the Charities day last week was a big success – a huge thank you to all the charities who came along. Nearly all of the Isle of Man based development charities have now been allocated to teams of Year 12 students from around the island. I’ll be coming in to schools after half term to talk about how to research the chosen charities and the Sustainable Development Goals, a global framework for international development. It’s now up to the teams to get in contact with their charities and start thinking about fund raising and what to put in the presentations – good luck!

Helen, OWCC Project Officer

We now have around 25 teams signed up to take the Charity Challenge, made up of groups of Year 12 students from around the island – a great number! The next stage will be for these teams to meet representatives from the Isle of Man based charities at the ‘Meet the Charities’ day at St Ninian’s Church on Wednesday 12th October. Teams from each school will have an allocated time to visit this event and ask the charities questions to help them to decide which charity they would like to represent. When the teams have found out which charity they will be representing they can then start to fundraise for that charity and start thinking about how to prepare a lively, creative, original, multi-media presentation about the work of that charity.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Helen, OWCC Project Officer

We are now busy visiting Year 12 students from secondary schools around the island to launch the Charity Challenge for 2016-17. We already have an amazing ten teams signed up from King William’s College – a record!

I will soon be coming round to the schools to see all the students who have signed up to give the ‘How to Choose a Charity’ seminar – to help you to make the best choice about the charity that you will represent.

The next event will be the ‘Meet the Charities’ day on Wednesday 12th October, at which participating students will get the opportunity to meet representatives from the Manx-based charities and ask them questions about the amazing work that they undertake, helping to transform lives in developing countries.

The tenth year of the highly successful One World Charity Challenge will shortly be under way. This programme gives Year 12 students the chance to learn new skills, have fun and support those in the developing world at the same time. For the Challenge, teams of Year 12 students choose a small charity working in the developing world, research the work of that charity and then put together a multi-media presentation. The presentation judged to be the best is then allocated the most funds for the charity. Students also have the opportunity to raise funds for their charity.

So far, around £200,000 has been allocated to charities working in the developing world through this initiative, making a real difference to the lives of those helped.

This programme is generously funded by the H and S Davidson Trust with added support from the IOM International Development Committee.

The finals of the One World Charity Challenge, held at the Manx Museum last week, were a great success and it was fantastic to see the results of the hard work put in by the teams taking part in the finals throughout the year.

Ramsey Grammar School were deserving winners, being awarded £4,000 for the work of Excellent Development, a charity which builds sand dams to provide clean and safe drinking water for people in rural Africa and Asia. Ramsey were also awarded £250 for raising the most funds for their charity (over £600!) and a further £250 for the audience prize.

Castle Rushen High School were a very close second, giving a very moving presentation about the work of their chosen charity, Grace Third World Fund, a charity supporting orphans and those affected by leprosy in India. They were awarded £3,000 for their charity and raised a further £135 by holding a silent auction.

Queen Elizabeth II High School won £2,450 for for Koru Hospital Fund in Kenya and Ballakermeen High School were awarded £2,000 for Global Action Nepal, plus £250 for the most creative fundraising effort. King Williams College had two teams in the final this year due to the large number of teams entering and each were awarded £1,000 for their chosen charities, Thare Machi Education which produces local language DVDs covering aspects of healthcare and St George Foundation which supports homeless street children in Sierra Leone.

Well done to all involved – I particularly enjoyed seeing the results of all the efforts put in by the students over the year in my first year as Project Officer for the One World Charity Challenge.

Helen

An exciting in-school competition at Ramsey Grammar School last night led to the last place in the final being awarded to the team representing Excellent Development, a charity which builds sand-dams in the developing world, who gave a very informed and interesting presentation about the work of their charity, showing us clips from the ‘Charity Channel’ including their rain-soaked fundraising walk!

Close runners-up were the team representing Leonard Cheshire Disability, who gave a very moving talk about the work of their charity and the life of Leonard Cheshire. They have been awarded £750 for the work of their charity.

So, it’s all now building up to the final on the evening of Wednesday 2nd March at the Manx Museum – preparations are now well in place for what should be a very informative and enjoyable evening.

We had an excellent evening at BHS last night, at which four teams gave very enthusiastic and informative presentations about the work of their chosen charities.

The following teams were awarded £750 each for the work of their charities:

Drop Inn Ministries – the team used videos of the work of the charity to great effect and talked very movingly about the work of the charity.

Hands of Hope – the team used their fundraising idea and their video of this to really great effect – it was clear how difficult it was to live on £5 a day!

Port St John – this team had a great use of football related humour, used audience participation and a showed a really good demonstration of the use of empathy.

The team going through to final, representing Global Action Nepal, gave a very well prepared and rehearsed presentation (despite some technical glitches!) about the importance of education and how their chosen charity helps to provide education in Nepal. They were also awarded £100 for the most funds raised at the BHS in-school competition – an impressive £300.

The teams between them raised over £800 to go towards the work of their chosen charities, in addition to the grants awarded. This was a great effort and I would like to congratulate everyone involved on this and also on the quality of the presentations given.

This leaves one place in the final, to be filled after the Ramsey Grammar School in-school competition tomorrow……results to be posted soon!

Four teams are now confirmed as having places in the final, with two places remaining.

The first in-school competition took place at King William’s College on Tuesday 2nd February, with two very deserving teams gaining places in the final at the Manx Museum on Wednesday 2nd March 2016. This year’s finalists will include two teams from King William’s College, as nearly half of this year’s competing teams came from KWC and this will allow an additional charity to benefit from the larger grants available for the finalists.

The teams through to the finals from King William’s College are:

Thare Machi Education (Isle of Man): the team gave a very enthusiastic presentation about the work of the charity, demonstrating the interactive DVDs produced by this charity which provide information about basic healthcare and simple life skills  for the world’s poorest people in their own language.

St George Foundation: this is a new charity to the Charity Challenge and was selected by the team. This small UK based charity works mainly with homeless children or street children in Sierra Leone. The members of the team gave a very informed and involving presentation about the work undertaken by the charity during the Ebola crisis.

The following charities represented at the KWC in-school competition have each been allocated £750 to help them carry on the amazing work that they undertake in the developing world. The charities will also receive the money that the teams have raised during the fund-raising element of the Charity Challenge.

Ask

Capstone plus £100 for raising the most funds at the KWC in-school competition – an amazing £220!

Pahar Trust

Pestalozzi

Romanaid

Wild Frontiers Foundation 

Two more charities to be represented in the final are:

Grace Third World Fund – represented by CRHS

Koru Hospital Fund – represented by QEII

This means that there are two places remaining in the final! The in-school competitions at BHS and RGS to decide which two further charities will be represented in the final will take place soon!

Students are now in the process of learning how to create an interesting, creative and lively multi-media presentation. The in-school competitions will take place soon, to decide which teams will go through to the final at the Manx Museum on Wednesday 2nd March. All teams participating in the in-school competition will receive some money for their chosen charity and all participating students will receive a certificate.

I am really looking forward to seeing the presentations at the in-school competitions, in my first year as Charity Challenge Co-ordinator – to see the culmination of all the hard work put in by the students, in researching their charities, learning about the Sustainable Development Goals, and learning how to put together an interesting and lively presentation. I’d like to wish everyone taking part good luck – I’ll see you at the in-school competitions!

Helen

Charity Challenge Co-ordinator

We now have 20 teams from five schools – that means that 20 small charities working in the developing world are being represented in the Charity Challenge. The teams are now busy researching their chosen charities and will soon be starting to create their multi-media presentations. We are really pleased that Ramsey Grammar School have put forward five teams, in their first year of taking part in the Charity Challenge.

The next stage will be to find out which charities will be represented in the final! This will be decided at the in-school competitions, normally held at the start of February. Two teams will be going to the final from King William’s College, as they have supported the Challenge by putting forward so many teams this year.

The final will be held on the evening of Wednesday 2nd March, at the Manx Museum. Rehearsals will take place on the previous day, Tuesday 1st March.

The list of charities being represented this year is:

Ballakermeen High School

• Do!
• Drop Inn Ministries
• Hands of Hope
• Port St John football
• Global Action Nepal (UK based charity)

Castle Rushen High School

• Grace Third World Fund

King William’s High School

• Ask
• Capstone
• Pahar Trust
• Pestalozzi
• Romanaid
• TME
• Wild Frontiers Foundation (UK charity, self-choice)
• St George Foundation (UK charity, self-choice)

QEII

• Kocep (formerly Koru Hospital Fund)

Ramsey Grammar School

• Excellent Development
• Leonard Cheshire
• Mannin Africa Sponsors
• School for Uganda
• Send a Cow (UK charity)