One World Centre Isle of Man

As you have probably heard, there have been devastating floods in Pakistan which are reported to have seen up to a third of the country underwater with whole villages cut off and homes destroyed and damaged. Huge areas of agricultural land are believed to have been affected, with crops swept away and three quarters of a million livestock killed. There is also a high risk from water-borne diseases spreading in affected areas

The Disasters Emergency Committee has called an appeal to help and assist aid agencies to meet people’s basic needs such as food, clean water and shelter. As usual, the One World Centre will be coordinating a street collection in the Isle of Man for local people to donate to the appeal. This will take place in the main towns – Douglas, Ramsey, Peel, Port Erin and Castletown – between Friday 9th and Sunday 11th September.

We desperately need volunteers to help with these collections – if you are able to help, even if only for an hour on one of these days, please get in touch with Wendy either by emailing info@owciom.org or calling 310191.

More information on the appeal can be found here https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/pakistan-floods-appeal

Thank you.

Please come and join us at our AGM which will take place at 7pm on Tuesday 27th September in the top hall at the Promenade Methodist Church in Douglas.

After the brief formal procedures we will be welcoming Karolina Davison who will talk to us about the ongoing situation in Ukraine, how the Isle of Man has responded to the unfolding humanitarian crisis and what more we can do. Karolina, who is herself Ukrainian but has lived on the Isle of Man for many years, has been a driving force in helping those arriving on our shores in recent months. 

Please come along and support us – we’d be pleased to hear your thoughts and ideas on our work and the future of the One World Centre. We also hope to announce the winners of our 2022 SDG Art Competition on the theme of ‘A Peaceful World’!

We are delighted to be able to offer some free Anti Racism training for Manx charities in conjunction with PoCIoM on Monday 5th September 2022, 7pm at the Top Hall, Promenade Methodist Church in Douglas.

This is a chance to challenge how your perceptions and behaviour may be unwittingly perpetuating inequalities and racial discrimination.

You may think your organisation doesn’t need it but we all have things to learn around how tradition and unconscious bias affects our outlook and decision-making – and understanding what changes we can make to become more diverse and inclusive.

Particularly aimed at charities involved in international development and humanitarian aid, this training is also open to other smaller charities on the Isle of Man who may not otherwise have the opportunity for this kind of training. It is free to attend but please book through Eventbrite here.

Thanks to PoCIoM and the Isle of Man Government’s International Development Education Awareness and Strategy grant for facilitating this.

Donations to PoCIoM welcome at the event.

We were absolutely delighted to welcome performing arts group Movingsounds back to Manx schools this week. Bringing their exciting and energetic mix of music, movement and environmental education, Keith and Ed put on assemblies for 10 primary schools and also ran workshops for Year 4, 5 & 6 students exploring positive solutions and collaborative working that also featured playing on “junk percussion”.

Movingsounds last came to the Island in 2019 and this is the first visit post-Covid. It was funded through the International Development Education Awareness and Strategy grant and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company also helped with a reduced fare for the group’s van that was packed full of interesting instruments created by using recycled materials (including planks from one of Brighton’s old piers!)

All the schools enjoyed the visits and a very wide range of environmental and sustainability issues were explored, including global impacts. Thanks to Movingsounds for all their hard work creating the material for the Isle of Man and delivering it in such a fun and inspiring way!

We were delighted to welcome Debbie Watson from Cumbria Development Centre to the Isle of Man recently to provide two one-day training courses for local teachers.

Both local primary and secondary teachers had the opportunity to consider what global learning is and how it can be incorporated into the curriculum across any subject.

As well as generating lots of discussion on the benefits and values of including global perspectives in the classroom, Debbie provided lots of links to great resources that can be used to explore pre-conceptions and interconnectedness.

Feedback on the two days was excellent and everyone went away with plenty of food for thought. The courses were funded through the Isle of Man Government’s International Development Education, Awareness and Strategy grant.

Well the TT is over so it must be time to start looking forward to the Global Village. This year’s event will be held, as always, on Tynwald Day at the Arboretum just below the St John’s Fairfield on 5th July.

A celebration of all the different cultures on the Isle of Man, the Global Village also showcases what’s happening in the areas of international and sustainable development – and we’ll have some new charities and groups joining us this year. If you’d like to book a spot – or if you can perform music, song or dance from another country around the world – please get in touch as soon as possible!

Imagine a world where there is no war or violence, where people are free from fear no matter where they live, what they look like or what they believe.

Imagine a world where we all help each other and look after the planet we live on. What would that world look like and how would you picture it?

“A peaceful world” is the theme of this year’s One World Centre Art Competition, based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and is open to artists of all ages and abilities on the Isle of Man.

There are two classes of entry; one for “Under 18s” and one for “18 and Over”. Prizes will be awarded to the winners and runners up in both categories.

Designed to raise awareness of SDG Goal 16 – Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions – the competition challenges people to think about the impact of war and violence on others around the world and to promote ways of peaceful resolution.

For more information, entry form and T&Cs go to our page here. The closing date is 29th July.

As part of our activities funded by the Isle of Man Government, we are delighted to offer the Global Teachers Award (GTA) training to Isle of Man teachers free of charge this summer term.

The GTA is a one-day course which helps you to develop the skills, confidence and practical approaches to incorporate global learning into the curriculum and encourage active global citizenship in your school. We are currently planning to have one day (30th June) for primary school teachers and a second day (1st July) for secondary school teachers (NB this date is now open to primary teachers unable to come on 30th June), depending on demand. Both courses will be held at Santon Professional Development Centre.

The course will be delivered by an experienced GTA trainer from Cumbria Development Education Centre. The training will be free – should participants wish to receive an accreditation certificate, there will be a small charge of £15 per teacher to cover the administration of this and the review of a reflective assignment required for the accreditation.

With events around the world weighing heavily on our minds at present, this is an excellent opportunity to help students consider global perspectives and engage in critical thinking.

More details can be found here. Please register directly with the One World Centre by emailing info@owciom.org indicating which day you would like to attend.

Play Action International, a charity that creates opportunities for disadvantaged children around the world to learn, develop and heal through play, has received a £5,000 donation after a team representing them from Ballakermeen High School were judged to be the winners in this year’s One World Charity Challenge.

The final of this year’s hotly contested event was held earlier this month in Babbage’s at the Mountain View Innovation Centre, in front of a live audience that included His Excellency The Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer, Chief Minister Alfred Cannan, other Ministers and MHKs as well as representatives from the Department of Education and students’ families.

Runner up teams from QE2 and Castle Rushen High School were awarded £2,750 and £1,750 respectively for their charities International Justice Mission, a charitable organisation that helps protect people in poverty from violence and slavery, and The Leprosy Mission. The QE2 team also won an additional £1,000 and the AFD Shield for Advocacy from the One World Charity Challenge sponsors AFD Software Ltd for their work in promoting their chosen charity to peers and public.

A further £500 each was awarded to Advantage Africa, represented by St Ninian’s High School, Send A Cow represented by Ramsey Grammar School and Chance for Childhood Teams represented by King William’s College.

In total £12,000 was awarded to charities on the night with a further £3,000 awarded in minor prizes to the charities represented by teams that did not make it through to the finals.

The One World Charity Challenge is an annual project which challenges teams of Year 12 students to choose, research and advocate for a charity that is working in the field of international development. The culmination of the project sees each team delivering a 10-12 minute multi-media presentation reflecting on the work of their chosen charity, how it makes a positive difference to young people in other parts of the world and how it meets the UN Sustainable Goals to help ensure a fairer world for everyone.