When a group of Italian school children found out that one of their nation’s most beautiful islands was at risk of being sold to a foreign businessman, they decided to take matters into their own hands and launch a campaign to buy it themselves.

Budelli island, Italy.

Budelli island, Italy. Image by Christoph Sammer / CC BY 2.0

Budelli island, part of the Maddalena archipelago between Sardinia and Corsica, was first put up for sale in 2013 after its owner went bankrupt. Michael Harte, a banker from New Zealand, paid €3 million for it and planned to turn it into a nature reserve, but local politicians objected to the sale, saying the island should be brought back under Italian state control. After reading the story in a newspaper, a group of school kids launched a campaign to make it into the ‘Isola dei Ragazzi’, or ‘Isle of Kids’. They worked out that if every Italian child donated just €0.50, together they’d have enough to buy the island themselves.

Read more: thelocal.it