Back at the Global Village for the Isle of Man's Tynwald Day 2025

Published in July 2025

Sarah Joseph from Sand Dams Worldwide ran a stall at the Global Village, part of the 2025 Tynwald Day celebrations on the Isle of Man on Monday 7th July. Tynwald Day is the National Day of the Isle of Man.

It is the only day when the Manx parliament – the oldest continuous parliament in the world – hold an open-air sitting at Tynwald Hill, continuing a tradition which has lasted for over a thousand years.

The day also provides an opportunity to celebrate Manx culture and traditions. As well as the processions, there was Manx folk dancing, live music, workshops, and the Tynwald Fair.

As part of the celebrations, One World Centre hosted the Global Village, showcasing local organisations and groups involved in international and sustainable development, and with food and music from around the world to celebrate the different cultures represented on the Island.

Sand Dams Worldwide has long-term links with the Isle of Man. Our founder and former Executive Director, Simon Maddrell, was born in Douglas, and we have five SDW Isle of Man trustees who live on the island. We are also fortunate to have received generous donations from the Isle of Man Government for over 15 years, to support our work in east and southern Africa, as well as the support of individual Manx donors and local organisations.

Ian Pilley, one of the trustees of SDW Isle of Man, who joined Sarah on the day, said:

“Having been fortunate enough to take part in an expedition to build a sand dam in Kenya in 2024, I jumped at the chance to be able to volunteer at Tynwald Day and tell as many people as possible how Sand Dams Worldwide provide life changing support for local communities in dryland areas of Africa.” 

Chris Jordan, who also volunteered at the stall said:

“The reason why I am volunteering today is because I went on one of the expeditions to Kenya last year and it was such a fantastic experience. The work that Sand Dams Worldwide do is amazing and I just wanted to add my support.” 

We were delighted to meet so many of our Manx supporters and friends, while also making new connections on the island. Many thanks to everyone who stopped by!

We are extremely grateful for everyone’s support on the day and their ongoing efforts to enable more dryland communities to access safe water close to home, and to work their way out of poverty.

Particular thanks to Wendy Shimmin and her team of volunteers at the One World Centre who organised the day and made it such a success.

We look forward to meeting many more of our Manx supporters at next year’s event!

Our current appeal: please donate what you can to help communities in Zimbabwe to restore degraded land with sand dams