One World Centre Isle of Man

Students at one of the Fairtrade workshops

Over 60 young students joined us at Legislative Buildings last week for the fifth Fairtrade Primary Conference.

Sixteen of the Island’s primary schools took part in the event which saw students take a day out of the classroom to learn about all things Fairtrade.

As well as a formal conference session, the students each participated in four workshops. These included a chance to debate in the Tynwald Chamber, a look at the production of Fairtrade chocolate (including an all-important tasting!), a philosophy for children discussion on the concept of fairness and a look at all the different products now available as Fairtrade.

The event was supported by the Manx Co-operative Society, who provided items for a packed lunch, and the keynote speaker was Amy Morris from the Co-op’s Fairtrade team who talked about the benefits of Fairtrade for producers in the developing world.

President of Tynwald Steve Rodan addressed the conference and welcomed the children to the Legislative Buildings.

Towards the end of the day, the children worked in groups to come up with ideas for Fairtrade activities in their own schools during Fairtrade Fortnight which this year takes place between 27th February and 12th March.

If you will be between 18 and 24 inclusive at the beginning of the trip and would like to apply for the “Who Else?” opportunity to support charitable work for four weeks in Malawi, Peru or Rwanda, applications need to be in by 1700 on Friday this week, 20th January.

If you are thinking of applying for the opportunity of going to Malawi, Rwanda or Peru this summer to work with children for a month, there is a chance to meet last year’s successful candidate on Thursday.  Emily Stephens will be at Ballakermeen High School at 1600 tomorrow (5th January).  She can let you know practical information like the vaccination process and what it was really like to be there.

Do come and join us!

On  Wednesday last week some hundred students from six educational establishments came to St Ninian’s Church to meet representatives of the charities they could choose for this year’s One World Charity Challenge.  At 08:00 the following morning more than 20 groups were busy e-mailing their top choices, and now most have been allocated the charity that they will work closely with over the next few months.

Students will be learning about their charity, seeing how its work helps towards achieving the Global Goals and how it has an impact on the life of a young person.  They will be combining all this learning into a multimedia presentation, and will also be dreaming up some creative ways to raise funds for the charity.

If you would like a ticket for the finals in March, please contact us.

You can find out more about what we’ve been up to in our latest annual report here: OWC Annual Report 2015-16