World Challenge 2011 contest now on

World Challenge is a prestigious global competition organised by BBC, Newsweek and Shell. Inaugurated six years ago, it is held annually and the past winners were one each from Peru and Pakistan and two each from Sri Lanka and Philippines; the two from Sri Lanka are Thusitha Ranasinhghe of the paper making firm ‘Maximus’ that makes paper from banana bark and elephant dung in 2006, and Vidyajyothi Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura for his ‘Safe Bottle Lamp Project’ in 2009 aimed at preventing bottle lamp burns.  

Now is the time for other entrepreneurs from Sri Lanka to have a go at this prestigious award that gets wide international publicity. The winner would also get US$ 20,000 and the runner up US$ 10,000 each, to be used for project activities. The award ceremony, held in Netherlands, would be featured in Newsweek and telecast over BBC World TV.

The Competition “is aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grassroots level”. The organizers want to hear about “social entrepreneurs who are making a difference without costing the earth”. The award categories are: community welfare & enterprise, health, education, water and environment. Normally, the organizers get around 1000 entries. Unlike other awards, there is a two tier selection process; firstly, a jury would select the 12 best projects on merit and BBC would telecast films on them. Later, the global public is asked to vote for the project of their choice through e mails. Thus, the winning project has to clear two hurdles, i.e., satisfy the jury as well as have mass appeal. 

Most families that lack electricity use makeshift bottle lamps that tip over causing serious burns, and  burns are widely believed  to be the “most devastating injury that a person can sustain and survive” because they cause severe pain lasting weeks and horrific scars. The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation has already used up the USD 20,000 prize money to give out 45,000 of their ‘Sudeeepa’ safe lamps free to  poor families that use kerosene; the Army helped them in a big way to send lamps to the North and East. Due to the wide media publicity that they received after winning the World Challenge Award they would be getting another Rs 2.2 million from well-wishers. According to the Samurdhi Authority, in the Anuradhapura District alone there are  9,000 families using kerosene, and the two organizations  are about to start a new programme to distribute free, the safe lamps that would be made with that money; that would be a boon to the poor. The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation would welcome more donations from philanthropists because they need more funds than what they now have E mail: [email protected]. 

Details of the competition are given in the website www.theworldchallenge.co.uk -  Dr.  Godakumbura is willing to  help those who are doing quality projects to apply for these awards, and his website www.safebottlelamp.org contain valuable tips. Perhaps it is time that a Sri Lankan won a third World Challenge Award and make it three out of seven!  The entries would close on 19 June, 2011 and self nominations are allowed.