When the One World Charity Challenge 2009 finals took place in March, it was hailed as an event set to change people’s lives.
Five months on and the lives of people in Kitgum, Uganda continue to be changed for the better thanks to the combined efforts of the charity Childcare Kitgum Servants (CKS) and a group of students from Castle Rushen High School, whose insightful presentation about CKS at the finals earned the charity a cheque for ?5000.
Representing CKS on the Isle of Man is Pat Wiles, who lives in Onchan. She and former Ballakermeen High School student Charlotte are going to Kitgum in Uganda at the end of August as volunteer workers.
It's no small journey: from Dubai, they will travel on to Entebbe, then undertake a nine-hour overland journey to Kitgum, some 40 kilometres from the border with Sudan.
Pat, who has been to Kitgum before, will stay until late October while 18-year-old Charlotte will be there for three weeks, before taking a gap year prior to going to Belfast University to read social anthropology.
Half of Charlotte’s suitcase will be filled with gifts for the children, including red t-shirts, which form part of the school uniform, skipping ropes and deflated footballs.
Pat will also be taking red t-shirts and 16 footballs, along with 11 mobile phones, a re-conditioned laptop and 150 pens.
Charlotte, who lives in Port Soderick, was a member of the team that researched CKS as their entry in last year’s One World Charity Challenge programme.
She said, "I was first inspired by the commitment of the charity’s founder, Irene Gleeson.
"Now I have the time, I’m going out to Kitgum to volunteer for CKS and see how the support it receives from the Isle of Man is making a difference to people’s lives.
"What attracted me to CKS was that it does so much for all age groups; it doesn’t just feed and clothe the children, it educates and supports young people through to university so they’re able to give something back to their community."
Pat said, "As well as volunteering for CKS, Charlotte will be able to see first-hand the contribution funds from the Isle of Man have made to the schools, in particular the three water tanks paid for with the One World Charity Challenge ?5000 grant awarded to Castle Rushen High School at the finals.
"She’ll also get to meet many of the people she’s read and heard about."
Pat, a former management consultant, will be applying her skills in areas such as reorganising administration structures and school timetables and working with team leaders to set up a school management committee.
She said, "When I was in Australia, I met CKS founder Irene Gleeson, who inspired me.
"Then, when the One World Charity Challenge was set up with the support of the H&S Davidson Trust, that was the impetus for me to set up CKS as an Isle of Man charity to support CKS Uganda."
One World Charity Challenge is a Freedom to Flourish initiative sponsored by the H&S Davidson Trust.
This year’s grant pool total was ?24,500. ?10,500 was sponsored by the trust then matched by the Isle of Man Overseas Aid Committee, swelling the funds to ?21,000. An anonymous donation of ?3,500 boosted the total to ?24,500.
Before she leaves for Uganda, Pat has a challenge of her own.
She hopes to raise ?3420 by finding 171 people in the Isle of Man each willing to donate ?20 towards food costs for orphan family children who attend CKS schools in Kitgum.
She explained, "CKS feeds the children in term time but now that food prices have risen by 30 per cent, we can’t afford to feed them in the school holiday mid-August to mid-September and there’s a very real risk of these children becoming trapped into starvation unless we can raise this extra money."
The 2009-2010 One World Charity Challenge programme will begin in October with the finals scheduled to take place on Tuesday 23rd March 2010.
For more details, contact One World Centre co-ordinator Cheryl Cousins by calling 825464 or emailing cheryl@owciom.org
To contact Pat Wiles, email patwiles@manx.net or phone 496599.
Pictured: CKS Isle of Man representative Pat Wiles at this year’s One World Charity Challenge finals, with students from Castle Rushen High School. Left to right: Ellie Howell Evans, Alice Kelly, Alison Hinds, Hannah Snidal, Samantha Wade and Kim Watson.
