The beginning of the new school year brings opportunities for Year 12 students to take part in the One World Charity Challenge 2019-2020!

If you’re in Year 12, you have the unique opportunity to take part in a project that supports charities working to improve the lives of people overseas, gaining an insight into the problems they face and how you can help.

Taking part in the Challenge gives you the chance to develop existing skills and discover new ones – including teamwork, research, creativity, and presentation skills. Completing the challenge is a real plus when included in university and job applications. Above all you will be directly involved in improving the lives of people in desperate need of help, both by your ideas for promoting your chosen charity, and by winning prize money that goes directly to the people your charity works with.

We’ll be posting more information over the coming weeks but if you are interested in taking part, and have any questions about the challenge, please contact us on oneworldcharitychallenge@gmail.com. We will do our best to help!

We are really grateful to our sponsors AFD Software Ltd for supporting the Challenge and providing the venue and technical expertise for the student teams, and look forward to another dazzling Final at Mountain View next March!

Congratulations to all the teams who got through to this year’s Charity Challenge Final, you were all absolutely brilliant and there was some very difficult choices to be made by the panel of judges. Well done for winning funding for your chosen charities and successfully promoting their work in such and engaging way.

Our winners were Castle Rushen High School, representing DO! Developing Orphans, who had thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the project, and the work of DO! Runners-up and winners of the Award for Advocacy, were Ramsey Grammar School representing Excellent Development, who created a diverse and dramatic presentation including live on stage sand dam demonstration! In third place were Ballakermeen High School on behalf of International Refugee Trust, performing their own composition, and creating their own animations to get the core endeavours of their Charity across to the audience. All teams did a fabulous job of both promoting the Charities and raising money for them, and created a final that impressed the audience from start to finish with excellent public speaking skills, costume, drama, music, art, and dance enhancing the informative and enlightening presentations  – WELL DONE!

On Thursday 28th February, St Ninian’s High School held their in-school Final for the Charity Challenge. This was followed on Monday 4th March by the Ballakermeen High School Final. All teams that have taken part and managed to complete the project through to this stage have secured some funding for their charities so well done. All of those that have taken part have demonstrated a great understanding of the project brief and executed their presentations exceptionally well, and are to be congratulated for the support and advocacy they have given to their respective charities – well done!

Going through to the Final on 27th March are St Ninian’s High School representing Thare Machi Education, and Ballakermeen High School representing International Refugee Trust. Great work and good luck!

The King Williams College Final was held on Tuesday 12th February and all the teams had done some fantastic work so the judges’ task was not easy. Charities represented were  Port St John, Wild Frontiers, Advantage Africa, Drop- Inn Ministries, Hands of Hope, Toybox, Pahar Trust, Mother’s Union, and Global Action Nepal.

Each team gave a thought provoking presentation about the wonderful work of their charities. The winning team gave an excellent presentation showing the work of Pahar Trust. They will go through to the inter-school final to be held at the Mountain View Innovation Centre on Wednesday 27th March, where they will compete with teams from around the Island for awards for their charity of up to £3,000, the Frances Davidson Cup, and the AFD Software Ltd Award for Advocacy. All the teams raised some funds for their charities both with prize money and from some fundraising work they had organised, so well done to all students taking part, and the teachers supporting the project.

Sarah, Project Officer

There will be the chance for all participating students to meet some of the charities on Friday 19th October at St Andrew’s Church Hall. Don’t forget you can also look at finding your own charity to represent – just email me the charity and we can check that they meet the judging criteria. Your team will then send me a list of the three charities that you would like to represent from Monday the 22nd October to Friday 26th October (hopefully before you start half term) and I will let you know early in the first week back at school, which charity you have been allocated to work with. Don’t forget to ask the charities lots of questions and make notes to help your team decide which charity you would like to represent.

It should be a really enjoyable and interesting day – please contact me if you need any extra information.

Sarah, Project Officer