About WOHAA
What is WOHAA?
WOHAA is a nationally recognised social enterprise programme created in 2005.
Students in years 9-13 work in small teams (6 or less) to run fundraising projects for the Wings of Hope Children’s Charity which helps children in India and Malawi to gain a free education. Students gain valuable skills from close mentoring and workshops from our corporate partners, allowing them to kickstart their career development with events such as Speed Mentoring and be inspired by speakers at Back to School Day. Through this national programme, teams are in with a chance to be selected for the semi-finals which are held at the Houses of Parliament!
UK students have the freedom to think outside the box and come up with event ideas which are entirely unique to them, and the freedom to run these events as they choose – an element which is specific to the WOHAA programme. We consider this freedom very important as it allows students to get a taste of real-world experiences whilst being guided through our mentoring.
We believe in empowering through education – not only by providing access to education to children in developing countries, but by improving transferable skills and opportunities for school students here. These aims are a valued contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as part of achieving Goals 1, 3, 4 and 5 – ‘Ensure good health and wellbeing and inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’.
Want to see what previous participants think? Head to our WOHAA Stories to find out.
Questions? We might answer them in our WOHAA FAQs.
All sounds good?
Mentoring
We work closely with our student teams to support their individual projects along the way through our mentoring system. This provides them with all the guidance, support, and inspirational tips they need to make their projects the very best they can be! We also partner with the London Business School so students have mentoring from the brightest business minds.
If you are interested in becoming a mentor please click here and see more details of our mentoring on our mentoring page.
Pairing
Very excitingly, we are now implementing a system of ‘pairing’ between the students at the school in Chennai, and UK students completing the WOHAA programme. Students will have a ‘pair’ student, with whom they can chat over Skype once a month to find out more about life in Chennai/the UK, and to discover what they have in common! Using technology we can create a unique connection between UK students and Indian students, encouraging global connectivity amongst young people across the world. Our UK students are inspired to work hard in supporting their partners in India, and seeing where their money is going really helps to put their work into context.
Awards
Our Annual Awards ceremony is a fun and glitzy event to recognise and reward our students, previously featuring performances from some of the UK’s top talent, such as the Loveable Rogues, Simon Bird of Inbetweeners fame, and Britain’s Got Talent’s Gabz!
This is the occasion when winning teams are presented with their Awards, in the five following categories:
Entrepreneurship – who has got their business head on and gone out seeking opportunities?
Community Action – who has looked outside of their own bubble, and done something within their community?
Raising Awareness/Best Presentation – who has gone out and about using their promotional skills to raise awareness of our cause, and polished their presentation and communication skills to perfection?
Excellence in Skills (performance, music, art, culinary, technology, sports) – who has wow’d us with their skills?
Most Funds Raised – who has negotiated deals, and dug deep to bring in the cash?
Not to mention the grand prize for the Overall Winners – a team who have gone that extra mile and showed outstanding talent!
Award Category winners will receive work experience placements with our corporate partners and our Overall Winners will get exciting opportunities to attend events with distinguished guests at the House of Lords and invitations to attend other calendar Events organised by WOHAA.
Visit our student, parent, and teacher info pages for more details on WOHAA!