A national competition to find the Young Global Education Ambassadors for 2011 is now open to schoolchildren in the UK. The winners will have the opportunity to visit Bolivia in February 2011 with Toybox and the Global Campaign for Education.

14 and 15 year–olds in the UK (year 10 in 2010-11) are invited to apply through their school for the Steve Sinnott Award. This competition will give two committed individuals, and their teacher, the amazing opportunity to travel out to Bolivia and investigate the barriers to education that street children face.

The competition aims to raise awareness of the need to provide every child with a full primary education by the year 2015. This is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals that world leaders agreed back in the year 2000. Since that time, some progress has been made, but there are still 72 million children around the world who are missing out on an education.

The winners will meet street-living and street-working children and hear from them about the challenges to a full education that they are facing. Children from Toybox-supported projects will give the students a unique insight into the lives of young people the same age. The students will also meet with community leaders and politicians, to hear about progress on education for all in Bolivia.

On their return to the UK the young campaigners will help ‘spread the word’ by speaking at union conferences and to the media. They will also feature in a short film, which will form the centerpiece for next year’s Send My Friend to School Campaign, organized by the Global Campaign for Education, to inspire schools across the country to help get free, quality primary education worldwide by 2015. This year 1 million pupils in over 9,000 schools are taking part in the campaign.

Steve Sinnott was a passionate advocate for Education for All. During his time as General Secretary of the NUT, Steve was a committed member of the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), which believes that education is the best route out of poverty. The Steve Sinnott Award was set up shortly after his untimely death in 2008. As a result of donations in memory of Steve, this exciting award scheme was created to further the skills of young education campaigners.

This year, the award is generously co-funded by Domain-London – a fully integrated communications agency specialising in the not for profit sector. Domain-London’s CEO Andrew Saunders commented “It’s great to have the opportunity to be involved in such an important project building bridges between children here and in Latin America.”

How to Apply

Toybox can only accept entries from children with the full support of a school, as a teacher must accompany the students on the trip. The students will be asked to produce a joint presentation in any medium (powerpoint, film, audio etc) which should show why they will make great campaigners.

Apply here.  For further information please contact David Westwood on david.westwood@toybox.org, ring Toybox on 0845 4660010 or visit www.sendmyfriend.org/award to download the details.

The closing date for entries is 10th November 2010.

On Tuesday, George Osbourne announced his emergency budget, which he hopes will rescue the UK economy. It looks like things are going to be quite tight for those of us in the UK over the next few years.

But the silver lining (yes, there is one!) is that the Chancellor has so far protected the UK’s aid commitment this year. It is really positive that the government is still committed to achieving 0.7% of Gross National Income bring spent on aid by 2013 – now we just have to make sure that they actually make it happen.

In the year 2000 the UK made a promise to halve extreme poverty by 2015. This Autumn two important things will happen:

1. In September there will be a summit reviewing progress towards the Millennium Development Goals

2. In October there will be a UK spending review, during which the Chancellor will announce further cuts, which may include cuts to, or a freeze on, the international development budget. We can’t let this happen.

When things are difficult at home, it can be easy to forget the world’s poorest. But we don’t want to do that. Even in a recession, the UK is one of the richest countries in the world and our overseas giving should continue to reflect this. Our commitment to the Millennium Development Goals has a direct impact on the street children Toybox works with.

Join The Big Dream and add your voice to hundreds of other Toybox supporters and thousands more who care about the world’s poorest. This Autumn we will be delivering all your requests to keep the Millennium Development Promise to the government, along with many other charities and NGOs.

Please make that silver lining shine for street children and sign The Big Dream today! Thank you!

Ten year old Diego had a very complicated start to life. His mother was a young teenager when he was conceived, and her pregnancy caused anger from the family. Her mother forced her to take measures to abort the baby, but because she was well into the duration, the activities only meant that Diego’s mother gave birth earlier than expected at home.

His birth was so complex and difficult that his grandmother declared him to be dead and she disposed of the body, and took her daughter away. However, their neighbours heard a child crying sometime later, and they found Diego alive out with the rubbish. They rushed him to hospital, but the doctors were not particularly positive about his chances. A few weeks later, Diego’s grandfather came and took Diego home, but his health didn’t improve.

Diego’s grandfather couldn’t take care of him suitably, and so decided to take Diego to a home, where he now lives – one of the projects that is part of the Lima Red Alert network. Despite his physical and mental limitations, Diego has grown into a happy child, secure in the knowledge that there are people who love him and care for him. His development has been slow, but thanks to the patience and grace of the project staff and volunteers, Diego continues to grow and learn and experience life to the full.