One Water launch starts Social Enterprise Day

St Matthew Academy in Blackheath, south east London, opened earlier this year, offering its students, aged 3 to 16, state-of-the-art facilities - more plasma screens than blackboards - and bright, airy spaces.

Yesterday, girls from year eight (aged 13 to 14) were invited to a special assembly where they heard from top social entrepreneurs before being challenged to come up with money-making ideas for the One Water Project -thinking about the three points of ‘people, planet and profit'.

The One Water Project, run by Make Your Mark, was launched in more than 100 schools and other youth organisations across the country. The basic idea is for students to sell bottled water to raise money for communities in Africa who don't have clean water supplies. As well as raising money, the project aims to deepen the understanding of social enterprise among young people by involving them in hands-on enterprise activity.

St Matthew's Assistant Principal Martin Nirsimloo said: ‘The aim here at St Matthew is to encourage female aspiration and get them to work as a business but also have a social conscience. We don't want to limit girls to certain things like hairdressing.' He said the school aimed to raise £7,000, the cost of a water pump that doubles as a round-about for children to play on.

Thirteen-year-old pupils Doyinsola Sanyaolu, Cara Michael and Audrey N'Gba were planning a concert in the school with local rappers such as N'Dubz which would ‘make people realise they are taking water for granted'. Doyinsola showed her business thinking by suggesting: ‘What adds to the value of the bottles is that they are signed by famous people.'

The event was also attended by minister for the third sector Kevin Brennan, Duncan Goose, CEO of the One Water Foundation, and other social entrepreneurs including Sam Conniff, co-founder of youth marketing agency Livity.

Brennan offered the prize of a trip to the House of Commons for the best idea of the day and said: ‘There are lots of events on Social Enterprise Day but we wanted to come here when we heard about the One Water Project. What a fantastic idea - that is more than just business.'

Duncan Goose told the assembly: ‘One billion people don't have access to clean water and many of them die. You are just one of 130 schools who have signed up to the challenge to do something about this.'

Coniff described his early business endeavours selling brownies in the school playground: ‘Business isn't just about making money… but also about making a difference,‘ he said.

The schools will have until Friday 19 December to raise as much money as they can.

To find out more, visit www.enterpriseweek.org/onewater