Six teams of Year 12 students from around the Island are busy putting the final touches to their presentations ahead of this year’s One World Charity Challenge awards night which takes place at the Manx Museum on Wednesday 2nd March.

The teams, who are all delivering multi-media presentations on a charity of their choice working overseas in international development, have battled through a series of in-school competitions to represent their charities at the finals. As well as gaining the opportunity to learn about development issues and develop their IT and presentation skills, the students have the chance to win significant cash prizes for their charities.

Now in its ninth year, the competition is supported by the H&S Davidson Trust which developed the original idea for the Challenge and provides the prize fund. This has kindly been matchfunded by the Isle of Man International Development Committee so that this year’s prize pool is ?22,000.

Nearly ?8,000 of this has already been allocated to the charities represented by other teams who did not reach the finals but there is still ?14,200 to be distributed as decided by the judges on the night.

The teams are marked against a number of criteria including how well they have researched their charities and the development issues in the area of the charity’s work, the impact the charity has on the life of a young person and how well they engage the audience with their presentation.

The judges include Hon Phil Gawne, chairman of the International Development Committee, David Anderson MLC (also on the International Development Committee), Director of Education Geoff Moorcroft, two representatives from local charities involved in international development Haresh Measuria and Jacqui Keenan, and a young person from each of the schools involved in this year’s competition.

This year participating teams were also asked to fundraise for their charities and small awards will be made for the team who has raised the most money as well as the team that had the most creative fundraising ideas. The audience of invited guests will also be able to vote for their favourite presentation on the evening.

Prizes will be presented by Hon Phil Gawne MKH, who is chairman of the International Development Committee, and the overall winners will be presented with the Frances Davidson Cup by His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor who is patron of the One World Centre.

One World Charity Challenge Co-ordinator Helen Kneale said: “The finals night of the One World Charity Challenge is an exciting event for the students and audience alike.

“For the students it is the culmination of their hard work over recent months and a chance to highlight the work of their chosen charity. For the audience it is an opportunity to enjoy the creativity of the presentations and to learn more about the wonderful charities working to have such a positive impact on the lives of others.”

The One World Charity Challenge is an invitation only event but some tickets have been reserved for members of the public who are interested in finding our more about international development and education. If you would like to attend please contact Helen Kneale at oneworldcharitychallenge@gmail.com or alternatively telephone the One World Centre on 800464.

Photo - Last year’s winning team from Castle Rushen High School, who represented the charity Toybox, in action at the Manx Museum.