One World Centre Isle of Man

Oceans and seas make up about 70% of the earth’s surface and we rely on them for food, energy and water. They are also home to over 260,000 known species with perhaps
millions more still to be discovered. But pollution, overfishing and climate change are endangering ocean habitats and everything that lives in them.

This year’s SDG Art Competition focuses on SDG 14 Life Below Water and challenges young people to create a poster outlining what positive action we can take to keep our oceans healthy. There are two classes of entry – primary age and secondary age – with prizes of £50 creative vouchers for the two winners and £25 for two runners up in each class.

Full details including a flyer, terms and conditions and the entry form are available here. The closing date is 25th July 2025.

Well done to Ballakermeen High School for winning this year’s exciting competition with their chosen charity Gumboots Foundation! Also to Castle Rushen for winning the AFD Advocacy prize for their work in raising awareness of Seed Madagascar. All the teams performed well and here is the press report in full:

Lack of education, poor access to health care and gender inequality were just some of the issues explored by local Year 12 students at the finals of this year’s One World Charity Challenge programme, held last week at Babbage’s, Mountain View Innovation Centre.

The competition, which is the finale of months of work by the students, saw some outstanding presentations performed in front of an invited audience which included Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer and Lady Lorimer, the Minister for Education, other members of Tynwald, invited guests, teachers and families.

Overall winners were the team from Ballakermeen High School representing Gumboots Foundation UK, a charity set up to address poverty and AIDS-related issues in townships and rural areas of South Africa by improving education, nutrition, empowerment and well-being. Their lively and engaging presentation saw them collect the top prize of £1,500 for their charity as well as the Frances Davidson cup. This is the fourth year that teams from Ballakermeen High School have taken the top spot!

Second place were the team from St Ninian’s High School representing Street Child, a charity that works across the world to ensure children are safe, in school and learning. It was clear this team had really engaged with the charity and, among other things, had taken part in a youth summit looking issues Street Child deals with. They won £1,250 for their charity.

Third place went to the team from King William’s College representing Livingstone Trust Tanzania, another charity which helps overcome barriers to education. They picked up £1,000 for this charity which is shortly changing its name to Mikuyu Tanzania.

The remaining two finalists were teams from QEII High School representing Action Village India and Castle Rushen High School representing Seed Madagascar. They both won £750 for their charities with the team from Castle Rushen also picking up the £1,000 AFD Award for Advocacy for their fantastic work in raising awareness of Seed Madagascar in the local community.

Judges for the evening included Lady Lorimer, Ramsey Grammar School headteacher Sonia Taylor, Phil Craine from the One World Centre and Jasmine Cowin, a former Charity Challenge contestant now working for Isle of Man Government. The prizes were kindly presented by the Lieutenant Governor.

Speaking after the event, One World Centre Coordinator Wendy Shimmin said, “As always, the students provided us with a very entertaining evening and much to think about as they explained the work and impact of their chosen charities.

“This year saw a record number of 35 teams taking part in the Challenge so it was already a real achievement for these five teams to get through to the final stage.

“One World Charity Challenge is one of our flagship projects. This programme not only introduces young people to the world of international development and humanitarian aid at a time when they are thinking about their own future choices in life, but offers lots of opportunity to practise key skills such as research, teamwork, organisation, presentation and time-management that will stand them in good stead as they move on to university or into the workforce.

“We are indebted to our judges who had lots to consider on the night, to the charities and link teachers who supported the students, and to the Elizabeth Clucas Charitable Trust and Gough Ritchie Charitable Trust, as well as AFD Software and other donors, for providing the prize money which goes directly to the charities involved.

“We also thank AFD Software for hosting the evening at Babbage’s and for the marvellous technical support they provide to the teams.”

The Disasters Emergency Committee has now called an appeal for the survivors of the terrible 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar which has devastated many areas of the country. Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds are still missing. Many more have no access to the safe shelter, clean water, food and medical care they need to survive.  

Countless roads and buildings have been destroyed, including hospitals, schools and water supplies. Network and power lines are down. People are cut off from vital services.

Myanmar was already facing a severe humanitarian crisis with a third of the population in need of humanitarian aid. Now the situation is catastrophic.

We will holding a street collection on the Isle of Man this weekend and are keen to hear from anyone who can help, even for an hour or so. Please get in touch with Wendy either by emailing info@owciom.org or calling 310191. Thank you.

This year’s annual Global Village event will take place on Tynwald Day Monday 7th July and applications for a stall are now open.

The Global Village is a celebration of the different cultures represented in the Isle of Man as well as a showcase for local organisations and groups involved in international and sustainable development.

Based in the arbortem at St Johns, just down from Tynwald Hill, the Global Village is a great family day out – and it’s free for visitors and stallholders to attend. Follow the links for the relevant forms and event Terms and Conditions.

Global Village 2025 Stallholder Application Form

Global Village 2025 Stallholder Terms & Conditions

We are delighted to host, along with Isle of Man Friends of the Earth, a talk from James Levelle – explorer, filmmaker and environmentalist – as he recounts his exploits travelling from the UK to a climate change conference in Chile without using fossil fuel, collecting messages along the way from young voices to present to conference attendees.

In a voyage filled with adventure and unexpected twists and turns – not least the cancellation of the conference mid-journey – James reflects on our relationship with nature, and on the need for young people to have their say on global issues which directly affect their future.

An award-winning cinematographer, James has filmed around the world – from documenting child labour in India’s cotton fields and deadly pirate fisherman off the coast of Sierra Leone to exposing the criminal trade in tiger skins and bone and the multi-million pound illegal logging industry in Southeast Asia.

These intense filmmaking adventures opened his eyes to the power of film and its extraordinary potential to change people’s perspectives.

Since then, James has worked in some of the world’s most extreme environments directing and presenting some of adventure TV’s most groundbreaking and successful shows such as Alaska: Gold Rush, Free Ride: South America, Primal Survivor: Amazon and Race For The Future.

The talk will be held at Erin Arts Centre at 7.30pm on Thursday 3rd April. It’s free to attend but tickets must be booked in advance to secure a seat. Please either use this link or get in touch with the Erin Arts Centre directly.

We’ve recently been marking Global Learning Fortnight – two weeks when we talk about what we are doing all year long as a development education and global learning charity!

The theme for this year was Connecting People for an Inclusive Planet and we put together some information about how the One World Centre and other local organisations are putting this into action through the projects we all run.

We’re always looking for new ideas on how to connect people in the Isle of Man with others around the globe to make the world a fairer and more sustainable place. Let us know if you have any ideas you’d like to share.

Join us for another of our Mighty Movies – films with a global perspective.

This time we are showing Five Years North, a documentary that follows the experiences of a young Guatamelan boy who arrives undocumented in New York and his struggles to live, study and work.We also see the situation through the eyes of Judy, a first generation immigrant from Cuba who works for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

As usual, the film will be screened free of charge at Henry Bloom Noble Douglas City Library and will start at 7pm on Thursday 28th November. No booking required, just come along.

How good is your general knowledge? Our “All Around the World” themed quiz night will get the brain ticking while raising funds for our work in raising awareness of global issues – and encouraging a positive response.

The event takes place at Bar George in Douglas on Thursday 7th November, 7pm for a 7.15pm start. Our guest quizmaster is Andrew Langan-Newton.

This is a key fundraising event for us this year (all proceeds will go to the prize fund of our One World Charity Challenge project) so please come along if you can – and encourage friends, colleagues and family to take part too. The tickets are just £7 donation per person, and you can have up to five people in a team. There will be prizes for the winners and we’ll also have a raffle.

Please email or call Wendy on 310191 to reserve tickets.