We had a fantastic final at Babbage’s last night, with a really good turnout despite the weather! It was great to see so many parents there supporting the teams.

All the teams did really well and I would like to congratulate everyone who took part. It has been my privilege to work with all the Charity Challenge teams over the last six months.

The results were as follows:

AFD Award for Advocacy (£1,000 and the AFD Shield for Advocacy): Queen Elizabeth II High School, representing the International Justice Mission.

Equal fourth place (£500): St Nininian’s High School, representing Advantage Africa; Ramsey Grammar School, representing Send A Cow; King William’s College, representing Chance for Childhood.

Third place (£1,750): Castle Rushen High School, representing The Leprosy Mission Isle of Man.

Second place (£2,750): Queen Elizabeth II High School, representing the International Justice Mission.

First place (£5,000 and the Frances Davidson Cup): Ballakermeen High School, representing Play Action International.

Thank you once again to our generous sponsor, AFD Software Ltd, for providing the prize fund and the amazing premises, food and support team that helped the evening to go so well.

The final charity to be represented at the One World Charity Challenge Final on 9th March will be the International Justice Mission, represented by QEII High School.

Other results at the in-school competition this morning were:

Starfish: £200 award

International Refugee Trust: £200 award

A big well done to everyone involved and thanks to our generous sponsors, AFD Ltd.

The level of competition at the Ballakermeen High School competition last night was extremely high and I would like to congratulate all the students who took part on the amount of work that they had put into their presentations, and the enthusiasm that they showed for the work of their charities. All were awarded funds for their charities from the extremely generous prize fund provided by AFD Ltd, sponsors of the OWCC.

The results were as follows:

Play Action International: Finalist

Excellent Development: £200

Thare Machi Education: £200

Kids Club Kampala: £200

Toybox: £200

A huge well done to everyone involved.

The first teams have been confirmed for the final of the One World Charity Challenge 2022.

We had a very close run in-school competition at King William’s College and I would like to thank everyone who took part for the amazing engagement they showed with the work of their charities. The results are below:

Chance for Childhood: Finalist

Pahar Trust: awarded £350

Mother’s Union Isle of Man: awarded £250

African Promise, Koru Hospital Fund, S.A.L.V.E. International and Global Action Nepal: awarded £150 each

The final at St Ninian’s High School was also very close and all the teams demonstrated good knowledge of and enthusiam for the work of their charity. The results were:

Advantage Africa: Finalist

Hands of Hope, Flying Seagull Project and Action Village India: awarded £200 each.

The finalists join the teams from Ramsey Grammar School, representing Send A Cow, and Castle Rushen High School, representing the Leprosy Mission Isle of Man.

The above awards were made possible as a result of the amazing generosity of our sponsor, AFD Software Ltd.

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope that you have all had a great Christmas break. Although extra curricular activities are currently suspended all teams should continue with preparing their presentations and completing the advocacy work for their charities. We are planning at this stage if possible to carry on with the in-school competitions and assessed presentations, leading to the final taking place on the evening of Wednesday 9th March, but I will keep everyone updated as we know more. Good luck to the teams with the great work that you are doing for your charities, helping to make the world a better place in these difficult times.

An update on Charity Challenge so far this year – the school visits have been going well and great progress has been made by the teams, who have now contacted their charities and started to research the information that they will need to put together their presentations. They are also making plans to undertake the all-important advocacy work that will help to raise awareness of the amazing work undertaken by their charities.

After Christmas, the teams will hold their in-school competitions to decide which team from each school will go through to the final at the Mountain View Innovation Centre on the evening of the 9th of March. It will be great to see the results of all their hard work!

The ‘Meet the Charities’ Day that took place last Friday was a great success. The level of interest and engagement from the students who attended was very impressive. It was also great to be able to meet up with representatives of the Manx based charities. Thank you to everyone who attended and to everyone who made this event possible. I now look forward to receiving the student charity choices by Tuesday 9th November. Well done to everyone who attended.

The ‘Meet the Charities’ day will take place on Friday 15th October this year, at St Andrew’s Church. Teams from each school will be allocated an hour to come and ‘Meet the Charities.’ There will be representatives from island based charities available, to talk about their amazing work. There will also be information available about the work of UK based charities participating in the Charity Challenge.

I am delighted to confirm the launch of the One World Charity Challenge for 2021 to 2022! I will shortly be visiting all secondary schools on the island to launch the project for this year, giving the students the opportunity to learn about this amazing opportunity to make a real difference in the world.

Well we finally made it after two postponements, and congratulations to all the teams who got through to this year’s Charity Challenge Final, you were all absolutely brilliant! Well done for winning funding for your chosen charities and successfully promoting their work.

Our 2021 winners were Ramsey Grammar School, representing Leprosy Mission IOM, who’s interpretation of the project was very imaginative. Runners-up and winners of the Award for Advocacy, were Castle Rushen High School representing The Pahar Trust Nepal, and in third place were Ballakermeen High School on behalf of Send a Cow. All the teams had researched their charities thoroughly, and demonstrated this very professionally. They have shown great determination in completing the project to such a high standard, especially through such a difficult time and everyone attending the event was very impressed with the results. Well done to all!