A thrilling finals night saw a team from Ballakermeen High School scoop the top prize in this year’s One World Charity Challenge event, held at Babbage’s at the end of March.
Representing the charity Advantage Africa, the Ballakermeen team gave a lively and highly entertaining presentation that focused on the charity’s work, particularly with those suffering from albinism. Presenting in a game-show format, the team demonstrated what they had learned and how they had raised awareness of the work of the charity with other young people on the Isle of Man. They were awarded Overall Winners and received a cheque for £4,000 which will go directly to the charity.
It is the second year in a row that a team from Ballakermeen has been awarded top prize, however it was a closely fought contest with the team from St Ninian’s High School, representing Tree Aid, taking second prize and also the AFD Award for Advocacy which meant they won £3,000 for their chosen charity.
A team from King William’s College, representing Gumboots UK, an education charity working with young people in South Africa, were placed third winning £1,000, with Castle Rushen High School representing Hospice Africa and Queen Elizabeth II High School representing International Refugee Trust winning £700 and £500 respectively.
This was the sixteenth edition of One World Charity Challenge which is an annual project for Year 12 students on the Isle of Man. Small teams choose a charity working in the field of international development, researching it, advocating for it and drawing together a multimedia presentation which is delivered in front of a live audience. The teams must also show how the charity addresses the aims of the UN Sustainable Development Goals which aim to shape a fairer and more sustainable world for all.
The project was kindly enabled this year through the sponsorship of Gary and Susan Clueit, who have supported educational opportunities, mostly for women, in sub-Saharan Africa for many years through their charity foundation. All the charities in this year’s Charity Challenge are working in Africa and all those not being represented in the grand finals event each received a donation of £150 on behalf of the teams representing them.
The uneviable task of choosing the winners fell to the judges who this year comprised Jesamine Kelly, Principal of UCM, Joff Whitten of the Children’s Centre, Zara Lewin, Onchan Commissioner and Youth Worker, Vusimbe Zivave, an architect raised in Zimbabwe, and Joney Faragher MHK.
Speaking after the event, One World Charity Challenge Project Officer Helen Kneale said, “The finals night is culmination of six months of work by the teams who have already taken part in in-school heats to get to the finals. Overall, we had 21 teams of young people taking part who all had the opportunity to learn about charities working in international development and to understand how their own actions could make a difference to their chosen charity’s aims.
“As well as encouraging young people to become global citizens, the project provides lots of useful transferable skills such as research, presenting, teamwork and time management that will be extremely beneficial for future university and job applications.”
