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Winners of Africa Challenge competition
15/04/2005
Pupils from one of Scotland's smallest community schools
have just won the trip of a lifetime to Malawi.
The winners of the Scottish Schools Africa Challenge
competition, launched with the support of the Hunter
Foundation earlier this year, are from Sanday Community
School in Orkney and their prize is a week-long trip to
Malawi at the end of May, accompanying First Minister Jack
McConnell on his first visit to the country.
Their winning entry was a collection of pen-pal letters
on everyday issues such as education, work and health.
At an event at Stenhouse Primary School in Edinburgh,
the First Minister said:
"The winning school team will have a unique and
unforgettable experience, but I am sure that the benefits
will extend beyond the winners to the school in Malawi, and
to both their communities.
"The standard of entries from pupils throughout Scotland
was extremely high. But this competition was not just about
prizes. It was about giving young Scots the opportunity to
think about Africa, and to learn about the way the people
of Africa are facing up to the challenges posed by poverty
and disease.
"In July, Scotland will play host to the G8 Summit.
Leaders from across the World will hold talks on making
poverty history, and this competition will have helped
young Scots to understand the mutual benefit to be
gained."
Sanday Community School will twin with a Malawi school,
and later this year they will host a visit from pupils and
teachers from the Malawi school.
Tom Hunter said:
"The quality of all the schools entries makes you proud
to be a Scot. Scotland's children have shone a torch on
Africa's plight, showing a deep understanding and concern
over finding a solution to this appalling situation that
sees a child die every three seconds from preventable
causes.
"If this was happening in the western world today, the
money for the solution would be found tomorrow. Scotland's
children are sending a clear message - Make Poverty History
now."
All Sanday's costs for the Malawi trip, and those of the
reciprocal visit, will be met by the Scottish Executive and
the Hunter Foundation. The British Council will organise
and supervise the trip.
The competition was open to all S1 to S3 pupils. More
than 130 entries were received.
The judges of the competition were Midge Ure, Dr
Josephine Munthali and Lesley Riddoch.
Leith Academy in Edinburgh won second place with an
eye-catching poster, and Belmont Academy won third place
with a powerpoint presentation.
Scotland has special links with Malawi, dating back to
the country's association with the Scottish explorer and
missionary David Livingstone.
The city of Blantyre in Malawi is named after
Livingstone's birthplace in Scotland. It was David
Livingstone who gave the country its previous name
Nyasaland, meaning 'big water land'. Lake Malawi is the
third largest lake in Africa.
Stenhouse Primary School in Edinburgh has been twinned
with Embangweni Primary School in northern Malawi since
Spring 2000. See
www.stenhouse.ik.org .