A team from Ballakermeen High School scooped the top prize in this year’s One World Charity Challenge event.

The grand final was held at Babbage’s in Ramsey.

The One World Charity Challenge is an annual project for Year 12 (aged 16 and 17) pupils.

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.

Representing the charity Advantage Africa, the Ballakermeen team gave a presentation that focused on the charity’s work, particularly with those suffering from albinism.

Albinism is a condition that limits the amount of melanin and therefore affects the pigmentation of the skin, those suffering from the condition are referred to as Albinos.

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 in the Isle of Man.

They were awarded overall winners and received a cheque for £4,000 which will go directly to the charity.

A spokesperson for the One World Centre said: ‘It is the second year in a row that a team from Ballakermeen has been awarded the top prize, however, it was a closely fought contest with the team from St Ninian’s High School.’

The team from St Ninian’s represented Tree Aid, taking the 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.

The teams must show how their chosen charity addresses the aims of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The spokesperson continued: ‘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 those not represented in the grand finals event received a donation of £150 on behalf of the teams representing them.

This year’s judges were 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.

The challenge’s project officer Helen Kneale said: ‘The finals night is the culmination of six months of work by the teams who have already taken part in in-school heats to get to the finals.

‘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.’

‘We are grateful to AFD Software Ltd for providing the venue, technical support and the Advocacy Prize, to the judges for their consideration and to the teachers who supported the teams throughout their journey this year.’