All of the teams from all of the Islands Secondary Schools have now completed their presentations and in-school competitions and we would like to congratulate you all on getting in to the Final! All of the students that have taken part in the Charity Challenge and presented their work to their schools deserve a big well done, you have all worked hard to make the lives of other people better and can be rightly proud of your achievement.

As to this year’s Final, it should be happening on Wednesday 25th March. Although we are still continuing preparations, we are following IOM Government current guidance, as we are aware that the situation can change quickly and are preparing for this. We are assessing this carefully, and will be notifying everyone involved as quickly as we can of any changes to the Event. We are working on this with the Charity Challenge sponsors AFD Software team and would like to thank them all for their ongoing support.

It’s really important that we can balance sensible precautions whilst making sure we recognise the work done by the students over the past six months, that is benefiting the lives of people overseas, and that allocated funding reaches the Charities that the teams have been working with. We will stay in contact with everyone connected with Charity Challenge and will keep everyone updated. Thank you for your understanding.

Well done to the teams from Queen Elizabeth High School and St Ninian’s High School for completing their presentations and in-school competitions. The team from QEII will be representing DO! Developing Orphans and the St Ninian’s Team are representing Thare Machi Education. Both teams have done a lot of work with their charities and have been very innovative in their advocacy approaches. The St Ninian’s team had an especially challenging time winning against the two other teams who had done some really good work for DropInn Ministries and Global Action Nepal. Well done everyone for doing such great work and demonstrating real understanding of what global sustainable development means.

Well done to all the teams in the King Williams College final held on Thursday 30th January. All the teams did a great job demonstrating the work of their charity and how they have advocated for them. There were all sorts of ideas and projects created with the charities to promote them which was fantastic!

After much deliberation, the judges chose the team representing Glad’s House as the winners on the night, and a huge amount of work had gone in to the presentation from the team, which was lively, entertaining and informative. The Pahar Trust team came a very, very close second and in third place was the team representing East African Playgrounds. We look forward to seeing the King Williams College team at the Final.

In-School Finals approach…

All teams’ are now preparing for their in-school finals to decide which team will go forward to the Inter School Final to be held at Babbage’s, The Mountain View Innovation Centre, Ramsey on Wednesday 25th March. Over the next few weeks the teams’ will be finalising their presentations showing everything they have learned about the charity they are representing and how they have worked with the charity to promote them. All teams’ that complete the Challenge up to the In-School Competitions stage will gain funds for their Charity, and the teams’ who reach the Final at the M.V.I.C. will have the opportunity to raise even more. All the students have had great ideas and have worked closely with their charities so it’s going to be an impressive Final!

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

School is back so that must mean it’s time to launch One World Charity Challenge 2018-2019!

If you’re in Year 12, then we’ll be in to see you over the next couple of weeks to talk about how you can get involved in supporting a life-changing charity that works overseas – and maybe change your own life too!

Previous participants have said taking part in the Challenge has helped them in a number of ways – with teamwork, research and presentation skills, and providing a great talking point in university and job applications. All this on top of the satisfaction of winning a cash prize for the small charity they chose to represent.

We’ll be posting more information over the next week or two but if you have any questions in the meantime, please contact us on oneworldcharitychallenge@gmail.com.

We are grateful once again to our sponsors AFD Software Ltd for supporting the Challenge and look forward to another great finals night at Mountain View next March