Students from Ballakermeen High School emerged victorious from this year’s One World Charity Challenge.

They won £5,000 for Play Action International, a charity that creates opportunities for disadvantaged children around the world to learn, develop and heal through play.

The final of this year’s event was held last month in Babbage’s at the Mountain View Innovation Centre, in front of a live audience that included the Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer, Chief Minister Alfred Cannan, other ministers and MHKs as well as representatives from the Department of Education and students’ families.

Runner up teams from QEII and Castle Rushen High School were awarded £2,750 and £1,750 respectively for their charities International Justice Mission, a charitable organisation that helps protect people in poverty from violence and slavery, and The Leprosy Mission.

The QEII team also won an additional £1,000 and the AFD Shield for Advocacy from One World Charity Challenge sponsor AFD Software Ltd for their work in promoting their chosen charity to peers and the public.

A further £500 each was awarded to Advantage Africa, represented by St Ninian’s High School, Send A Cow represented by Ramsey Grammar School and Chance for Childhood Teams represented by King William’s College.

In total, £12,000 was awarded to charities on the night, with a further £3,000 awarded in minor prizes to the charities represented by teams that did not make it through to the finals.

The challenge is run by the One World Centre, and is an annual project which challenges teams of Year 12 students to choose, research and advocate for a charity that is working in the field of international development.

The culmination of the project sees each team delivering a 10-12 minute multi-media presentation reflecting on the work of their chosen charity, how it makes a positive difference to young people in other parts of the world and how it meets the UN Sustainable Goals to help ensure a fairer world for everyone.

This year’s event was judged by Claire Bader and Christa McCartney, both from the One World Centre, Stephanie Gray and Manx Bard Owen Atkinson.

The team from Ballakermeen said: ‘We are so grateful to have been given the opportunity to advocate and raise money for this charity, Play Action, in the first place. To win is amazing and something we never expected.

‘We can’t express how much this sum of money is going to help the charity complete their important work.’