We are thrilled to learn that a group of six Lower Sixth boys have progressed to the semi-finals of the Global Goals Competition for their new fundraising campaign ‘DROP’, which aims to reduce maternal mortality in South Sudan.
The competition challenges students around the world to engage with the United Nation’s sustainable development goals and to implement them in their own way by carrying out a project to further these goals. The boys, namely Yonathan Sileshi, Maxwell Martin, David Adeyemi-Abere, James Cutler, Harry Hine and Ethan Ofosu, were inspired to enter the competition after attending the Ready2Lead Conference, run by Mr Everitt, and came up with the idea for ‘DROP’ when they learned about high mortality rates – in particular maternal mortality rates, in third world countries.
The boys, who have been liaising with the likes of charity CEOs and charity ambassadors based in South Sudan, have pooled their skills resources and shown remarkable entrepreneurial flare to bring their idea to life. The result so far: a slick sustainable process which has already helped a number of pregnant mothers living in South Sudan by providing packages containing hygiene products to enable more sterile births, reducing the number of maternal deaths as a result of infection in birth.
James, one of the boys on the project team, told us, “We chose South Sudan as the country to focus on as it currently has the highest maternal mortality rate of any country in the world. It is estimated that there are 789 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; so, we hope that our packages will help reduce this number and allow more children to grow up with a mother figure around.”
As a side-pledge, they decided that all their items would be either biodegradable or reusable, ensuring their project does not harm the local environment.
You can read more about their project in our earlier story Boys Fundraise to Help African Mothers Give Birth Safely.
Amy Mander, Head of Global Social Leaders said, “We were impressed by the staggering quality of projects entered into this year’s competition and you should all be very proud of yourselves to have designed and led social action and made such a positive impact.”
Reaching the semi-finals of the Global Goals Competition is a huge achievement for the boys and we are thrilled they have received external recognition for their endeavours. The winner will be announced on 17 June – watch this space!