Pupil Wins Anti-Hate Challenge Award

Published on: 12 Dec, 2021
Updated on: 15 Dec, 2021

A Guildford schoolboy has won a top prize in a major anti-hate challenge organised by the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation.

Callum Halkett, a Year 10 student from Wey Valley College pupil referral unit in Southway, Westborough, has been awarded second place in the UK category of the international Stronger Than Hate Challenge for his essay on drugs destroying communities.

Callum Halkett, has been awarded second place in the UK category of the international Stronger Than Hate Challenge.

US-based competition judges awarded Callum a runners-up prize of a £1,000 grant for his school and also an iPad.

The challenge organiser, the USC Shoah Foundation said its actual mission is to collect testimonies of survivors of genocide. It has more than 55,000 video testimonies, each one is a unique source of insight and knowledge, oﬀering powerful stories from history that demand to be explored and shared.

The testimonies are preserved in its Visual History Archive, said to be one of the largest digital collections of its kind in the world.

They average a little over two hours each in length and were conducted in 65 countries and 43 languages.

The majority of the testimonies contain a complete personal history of life before, during, and after the interviewee’s firsthand experience with genocide.

The foundation is continuing to collect testimonies from current survivors of atrocities around the world.