Readings
NEWS Young Aussie inspires students- Bega District News
27/02/2004
THE 2004 Young Australian of the Year, Hugh Evans, held Bega High School students fascinated yesterday morning as he told them what he had done in the teenage years.
Concerned at an early age with the plight of people in developing countries, Hugh, now 20, initially worked hard for World Vision during his junior high school years.
When he was 15 he went to India to study, saw the work of Mother Theresa and the enormous problems faced by Indians just to keep alive.
He also travelled to South Africa and the Philippines.
Returning to Australia, Hugh and like-minded people founded the Oak Tree Foundation, a movement of passionate young people seeking to empower and equip children and young people in the developing world.
The foundation is made up of volunteers aged 14 to 25 and mentors who support the volunteers.
It believes that young people have the passion, positiveness and motivation necessary for making changes in the world.
"When I came back from Africa, I literally wished I had a public microphone so I could tell everyone that yes, issues of poverty are real, and yes, we can make a huge impact," he told the Bega Years 10 and 11 students yesterday.
The foundation's pilot project is a community centre in the HIV/AIDS-ravaged and poverty-stricken valley of Kwa-Ngcolosi in KwaZulu-Natal.
The centre will serve as an education resource by providing young people in the area with computer and literacy facilities and promoting community education.
The centre will be owned and operated by the community it serves and will provide access to a range of much-needed learning and resource materials otherwise inaccessible to the valley.
