HRH Prince Edward To Launch New Fundraising Initiative

His Royal Highness, Prince Edward will officially launch a new innovative fundraising initiative to mark the 40th anniversary of the Young New Zealanders’ Challenge of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award on 19 March in Wellington and 21 March in Auckland.

The new initiative called the Charter for Business is a partnership between the Young New Zealanders’ Challenge Award Programme and individual companies It is designed to fund increased access and the expansion of the Award throughout New Zealand. The Charter for Business model has been a success in Australia, the UK & Canada where it has led to greater availability of Award programmes and the undertaking of special projects and development work

“We are committed to continuing to grow the Award by seeking to make it relevant to all strata’s of society,” says Andrew Meehan, Chairman, Board of Trustees of The Young New Zealanders’ Challenge; and the Charter for Business. “We believe this can be achieved by forging lasting partnerships in business, central and local government, other youth-focussed organisations and with the participants themselves,” he says.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award was started in the UK in 1956 by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh as a self-development programme of activities for young people. The Award stresses individual achievement through a range of challenging activities enabling participants to challenge themselves and gain self-esteem, an important step in transitioning to adulthood.

The Young New Zealanders’ Challenge, as it is known locally, has offered an exciting personal challenge to tens of thousands of young people between the ages of 14 and 25 since its inception 40 years ago. At present, around 5000 young New Zealanders take up the Award each year with a further 10,000 involved at any one time, but there are large numbers of young people the organisation is unable to reach due to funding constraints.

“The introduction of the Charter for Business will provide positive opportunities to assist less privileged young people but will also allow us to channel funding into areas where the current Award structure has not been able to penetrate, due to lack of resources,” says Mr Meehan.

The Young New Zealanders' Challenge of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

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