Students launch Malawi challenge

Nov 21 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

STUDENTS from The King’s Academy in Middlesbrough have launched a new UK-wide enterprise competition that will be judged by BBC Dragons Duncan Bannatyne and Doug Richard.

The ‘One Big Idea’ competition, that will address development issues in Malawi, was launched by 150 students who gathered on their school yard in the shape of the number ‘1’ wearing the colours of the Malawi flag.

The competition aims to find the next social entrepreneur and will engage people of all ages to create the next Global Ethics’ One branded ethical product to directly improve the lives of thousands of people in Malawi. The winning product will be sold in selected Co-operative food stores across the UK.

The King’s Academy is one of the first schools to sign up to the competition, which will see students identifying a problem in Malawi using resources provided and come up with a product that can be developed and sold.

The winning idea will be produced and 100% of Global Ethics’ profits from its sale will be used to tackle the development problem.

Louise Kempton, head of the North East region at Enterprise UK, the organisation behind the Make Your Mark campaign said: “One Big Idea is what social enterprise is all about – turning innovative ideas into reality whilst making a tangible difference to people’s lives.