Rebecca Pattni talks to the Queen Elizabeth Boys’ team aiming to do good through literature

A painting of poet John Keats by William Hilton — Local poet John Keats painted by William Hilton

A student at a Barnet school has launched a poetry competition to raise funds for charity.

Sai Rushil Manchiraju, 13, a year nine student at the Queen Elizabeth Boys School, organised this competition with five friends in support of Wings of Hope, a charity which helps to provide education for underprivileged children in India and Sierra Leone.

The group of friends, Team SAROYA, (an acronym for all the members names), have launched the competition as part of the charity’s Wings of Hope Achievement Awards (WOHAA) programme, which encourages students in year nine to twelve to create their own fundraising challenges.

Since it was founded in 2003, Wings Of Hope has worked with over 40,000 UK students from 500 schools who have held over 50,000 youth-led projects in their communities. Funds raised through team initiatives like Sai’s poetry competition directly helps to support WOH’s aim.

Sai told Barnet Post that he came across the charity during a school assembly, which “really struck a chord” with him and his peers.

Say says Team SAROYA chose to organise a poetry competition to inspire others to “use their voices through verse” because they believe that literature is a “very powerful tool that branches across different demographics and really connects people together.”

He added that his team share “joint passion for poetry and literature”, so the poetry competition felt like a natural choice.

The competition theme, ‘Equality and Acceptance’ was selected to “mirror and reflect” the charity’s mission to support and educate underprivileged children in India and Sierra Leone.

Open to all ages and demographics, entrants are asked to submit a poem of no more than 40 lines on the theme of equality and acceptance. Use of AI is prohibited and any entries deemed inappropriate will be disqualified.

Entries can be submitted via a link on Team SORAYA’s website, with an entry fee of £3 per poetry submission, all of which goes to the charity and submissions close on 16th February.

Prizes include a £50 Waterstones gift voucher for the first place winner and a £30 gift voucher for second place. Other prizes include books, accessories and a chance to be published in the Queen Elizabeth Boy’s School newsletter.

Entries will be judged and decided by the team, in collaboration with the Enfield Poetry Society.

With the deadline approaching, Sai encourages the Barnet community to take part and support Wings of Hope’s work in providing education for children in India and Sierra Leone.

Entries can be submitted via Team S.A.R.O.Y.A’s website at https://www.teamsaroya.co.uk/.

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