High school and college students from around the Island will compete this evening (Tuesday) for thousands of pounds funding for overseas charities, at the finals of the 2011 One World Charity Challenge.

Six teams will stage presentations in front of a panel of judges and an audience of around 200 at the Manx Museum.

It's the culmination of months of work by the teams, which have already beaten off competition from rival groups in their own schools.

Teams competing in tonight's final are from Ballakermeen, Castle Rushen, QEII and St Ninian's high schools, along with the Isle of Man College and King William's College.

They will make impassioned pitches to win funding for their chosen overseas charities, which include a refugee trust, a Send-a-Cow project and a charity which supports the children of Chernobyl.

Eleven thousand, four hundred pounds will be distributed among the charities this evening, the winning team receiving the biggest slice.

That's from a total grant pool of ?21,000 funded by the Isle of Man Overseas Aid Committee and the H and S Davidson Trust.

The remainder has been shared among the 24 other teams which haven't made it to the final.

The special guest will be director of the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative in London Alex Reynolds, who operates charitable education programmes in more than 100 schools in the United Kingdom.