Readings
OPINION Gen Y shows us the way- The Herald Sun
23/10/2006
HUGH Evans writes Generation Y has copped a fair amount of flak in recent times.
Some critics say we only look out for ourselves, we don't commit to anything or we just don't care.The truth is that every day, all over Australia, young people are the driving force behind powerful social change, out there making a difference, speaking out and putting words into actions.
Gen-Y'ers donate more of their time to charitable causes than perhaps any other generation in history.
Statistics show record levels of volunteerism among Australia's youth and a higher level of social engagement and activity than ever before.
But it's perhaps with young people's work in the Make Poverty History movement that teens and twenty-somethings' work is making the biggest difference.
Motivated by the knowledge that we are the first generation that can make poverty history, young people will next month be responsible for staging the biggest youth-organised event Melbourne has ever seen.
It is the Make Poverty History concert. Featuring Australia's top artists, it will be held on November 17 at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on the eve of the G20 meeting of world finance leaders.
Thousands of young people will descend on Melbourne for the event.
With secured acts such as Eskimo Joe and Evermore, some have found it hard to believe that 19-year-old university student Dan Adams is the mastermind.
But Dan is just one example of the fact that young Australians can truly make a difference.
Earlier this month hundreds of young volunteers hit the streets in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, knocking on doors to speak with local residents about the constructive actions that can and should be taken to eradicate extreme poverty.
On the same weekend, youth was the main driver behind the setting of a new mark in Guinness World Records.
A staggering 92,000 people across Australia set the record for the number of people standing up at one time against poverty -- joining 23 million across the globe.
Last year more than 200 people under the age of 25 departed on a road trip to Canberra to speak directly with politicians about Australia's role in eradicating extreme poverty.
This work is done, so Generation Y can send a clear and positive message that Australians want world leaders to act to make poverty history.
With the G20 meeting in Melbourne next month, our generation will urge world economic leaders to cancel the debt of the world's poorest nations, to give more aid for those countries in desperate need and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals -- a global plan to halve poverty by 2015.
With the resources, technological capabilities and a globally agreed plan to end extreme poverty, young people in Australia have realised that ending destitution is no longer an unattainable goal.
Australia spends more than $7 million on lollies every 40 hours: that could build a school in each of 365 villages in Somalia.
The $9.5 million spent on soft drinks every 40 hours in Australia could immunise 350,000 children facing disease in Africa.
I have seen first-hand the huge impact that can come from even just small steps.
On a trip last year to Ghana, I saw how an $80 business start-up kit had helped a woman released from slavery start a new life.
Since the age of 12 I've been passionate about ending poverty but seeing it first-hand made me realise how little I can really know about it.
It really is difficult for us to begin to understand what it's like to grow up in conditions of grinding poverty.
While the movement to end this misery is driven in the public eye by the likes of Bob Geldof, Bono, Nelson Mandela and even Bill Gates, it is young people who are providing the fuel.
We understand that poverty is the slavery issue of this generation: it is man-made and can be stopped.
When the G20 meeting comes to Melbourne our message will be simple: ending extreme poverty is not an unattainable goal, and our generation is committed to achieving it.
HUGH EVANS, the 2004 Young Australian of the Year, is the founder and director of the Oaktree Foundation.
