The winner of a charity poetry competition, organised by six teenagers from a Northwood school, has been announced.

A group of girls from St Helens School, ran the competition for eight to 13-year-olds, to raise money for Wings of Hope, a charity which provides free education to poor and orphaned children in the developing world.

The team, known as Esperanza, includes Angela Khanna, Moor Park, Aneka Sharma, Northwood, Bansaree Shah, Northwood, Nirali Patel, Ealing, Shruti Dorai, Pinner and Anna Murray, Amersham.

The winning poem belongs to Raphael Blume of Rudolf Steiner School, Kings Langley, and is published in full below.

Anna Murray said: “The response to the competition was fantastic and it was incredibly difficult choosing an overall winner so we have selected two runners up who will receive certificates.

“However, it was Raphael's imaginative response to the competition topic that made his poem stand out.

“The honesty and sincerity with which he wrote the poem and the way he used the imagery of different parts of the world, not only to show his longing to travel but also that despite our differences we are all 'brothers and sisters' made his poem a joy to read.”

The competition was part of a programme of charity work which started in September, when the girls were challenged by their school, in Eastbury Road, to turn £10 into £100 in ten weeks.

Ms Murray said: “We decided to donate the money to the Wings of Hope Charity as we were really touched by the work they do.

“This lead to us joining their achievement award [fundraising] project, our events started small with Balloon Blasts held in our school for the younger children.

“From this we expanded into home-made cards. We spent hours producing cards that we then got our friends and families to sell in schools and workplaces.

“We gave out leaflets about the charity and the work they do to promote awareness with all our cards and at our events, we also did this at our Christmas fair where we ran a stall.”

“Around The World”

By Raphael Blume

"I would like to go somewhere far and foreign where no one has been yet before. A happy place, with no sorrows, no hunger, sickness anymore.

"To smell the spices of East Asia to feel the soft sand of the deserts and hear the waves upon the shore or see the highest mountains soar.

"People who speak different tongues but they are still my kind as we all breathe the same air brothers and sisters we are in mind."