We have an amazing 23 teams this year. Many new charities , with their work focussed in Africa, are participating. There has been a huge amount of engagement and enthusiasm from the school teams, who are now making good progress with awareness raising for their charities and are also starting to put together their presentations, after liaising with the charities to find out more about their work. The next stage, after Christmas, will be the in-school competitions, where teams will be chosen to take part in the Final, which will take place at AFD Software on the evening of the 30th March (more details to be announced nearer the time). Good luck to all the teams and charities taking part!

Most students have now received information about the great charities supported by the One World Charity Challenge this year, and are now busy making their choices! The deadline for charity choice submissions this year is 10th October and charities will be allocated shortly after this.

Good luck!

Fantastic news, Charity Challenge 2022-2023 will be going ahead, thanks to our generous new sponsors, Gary and Susan Clueit. The launch will take place soon for Year 12 students in schools around the island.

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.