AYF supports The Oaktree Foundation to help ‘Make Poverty History’
From Saturday 8 May 2010, 1000 young people are embarking on a nationwide road trip to help end extreme poverty.
The 2010 Make Poverty History Roadtrip is organised by The Oaktree Foundation, Australia’s largest international aid agency run entirely by young people under the age of 26.
Nine road trips will depart from seven capital cities across Australia, to raise awareness of the campaign, converging in Canberra for a two day camping festival and 2010 Make Poverty History Summit.
The AYF is supporting the 2010 Make Poverty History Roadtrip, funding scholarships so that young people, who may not otherwise afford it, can participate in the Roadtrip and hosting a AYF session at the Summit. The AYF will be talking directly with the 1,000 Make Poverty History participants at the two hour AYF Youth Consultation forum in Canberra on Friday 14 May.
AYF Youth Consultation Partnership on International Aid
On Friday 14 May, the AYF partnered with Oaktree and met 1000 Make Poverty History ambasssadors. The topic for discussion at the event was on Australia’s role in meeting the Millenium Development Goals and, in particular, increasing the effectiveness of international aid.
Speakers included Mr Bob McMullan MP, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Senator the Hon Ursula Stephens, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector, Mr Marc Purcell, Executive Director of Australian Council for International Development. The Hon Kate Ellis MP, Minister for Youth, also addressed the crowd via a video message as she was overseas.
During the break out group session, representatives from Oaktree and AusAID worked with the ambassadors on the topic. Check out the report to see what was said – there are some photos too. For more information on the entire event go to Oaktree’s website.
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What do you think?
You can discuss this topic on the AYF website’s Have A Say page.
Diary of a Roadtripper
AYF Youth Engagement Steering Committee Member, Eva Mackinley is one of the 1000 ambassadors taking part in the Make Poverty History Roadtrip. Eva is sending through diary updates from the road - she started her 2010 Make Poverty Roadtrip from her home town of Hobart.
Day 1
Its close to 2am, 2 hours into the 2nd day of the Make Poverty History Road Trip, and I'm trying to rid my mind of all the hectic fun of the day and get some sleep (unsuccessfully)! - I'm one of 50 young Tasmanians, 1000 young australians country wide who are embarking on this week away from work, family, school and uni to ask our government to live up to their promises so that we may see the end of extreme poverty in our lifetimes.
After 3 weeks of preparation, intense training and bonding sessions, we finally hit the road today. Our itinerary will take us all the way to canberra where we will join our voices with the 950 other road trippers, campaigning every step of the way in communities, marginalised electorates and with politicians, asking them to sign and commit to the Act to End Poverty and ask for 3 things- more aid, better aid and global leadership on effective international aid solutions, with an emphasis on our neighbours in the asia pacific.
We started out at Guildford Young Hobart where we'd stayed that night, and made our way down to Salamanca markets for a day of campaigning and flash mobs. We broke into groups of 2 and missioned around talking to as many people and asking them to sign the act and inviting them to our send off concert.
We then rocked out to some great local acts and heard from Senator Christine Milne before squeezing all of our luggage under the bus and climbing aboard and starting our adventure! After a stop for hot food at the half way point, a game of bus speed dating and a few fumbled camp songs, we arrived at our camp site.
Our two Reach representatives held a session with us after that, and for anyone that has ever done one of these, you'll know that there were a lot of tears before the night was through, and a lot of stories that brought us so much closer together as a family.
It was time then for lights out and some well needed sleep.
There's the first edition of my road trip blog, stay tuned for tonight's addition!!!
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Day 2
This is where the big stuff starts. We woke at 8:30am to the excited screams of some of the team leaders as they told us to get up for an interesting session of 'aerobics', which we did in our oh so stylish pyjamas, rolling around on dewy grass and mud in the crisp morning air.
After aerobics we piled into the dining room for a continental brekky, paired up as 'mums' for mothers day. Our mums were our buddies for the day, and the basic idea was to take care of each other and look out for each other like mums are supposed to.
The first proceeding of the day was door knocking around Ulverstone, part of the marginal electorate of Braddon, collecting signatures for The Act and inviting them to attend our community forum. This forum was a kind of leaders debate- a chance for us to state our case to three representatives from our three leading parties- liberal, labor and green.
Each party had a different thing to say, and I won't go into too much detail, except for the fact that Paul O'halloran from the Greens revealed to us that 0.7% of gross national income to effective aid solutions is the policy of his party, whereas both Richard Colbeck MHA and Sid Sidebottom MP both referred to it as an 'aspirational goal'. Very interesting.
I was disappointed by the lack of a yes or no from Sidebottom to support the Act if it's introduced into parliament, but the buzz and the passion in the room was fantastic and I really enjoyed O'Halloran's views on aid overseas and the work we still have to do at home.
The forum ended and we made our way to the local bowls club where we played an intense game of soccer before heading inside for a delicious dinner provided by the local Rotary club. That night we had an emotional 3 hour Reach session that took us through a roller coaster of emotions, and ending with us dancing like wild things in a candle lit 'cave'. After that rave it was well and truly time for bed, to get enough sleep for the adventures of tomorrow.
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Day 3
After breakfast we loaded up the bus and set sail to the campus of Don College for some more campaigning and flash mob action. People were really receptive to our cause and we got a whole heap of signatures of the Act in the short recess. We did one of our flash mobs and then headed far upstairs into the guts of the building for our final Reach session.
Tears were flowing like rain as we walked through a tunnel of our friends one at a time, eyes closed as they whispered into our ears a thing that they had learned about us or liked about us over the last couple of days. It was an absolutely beautiful experience, one that will stay with me for a long time.
As we walked back downstairs for the start of lunch, the fire alarm went off but everyone was gathered on the same stretch of grass so it was an opportunity for more campaigning before we settled down for some sweet BBQ food.
Then it was time to board the bus and travel to Launceston where our accomodation for the night was and our final tassie event was being held. We settled into our rooms, said goodbye to Trevor the bus driver with a nice song invented by some of the ambassadors. Dinner was a delicious spag-bol provided by the local uniting church and we typed up the Act signatures. We got the news that the count had reached 31 000!!!!!
After a frenzied washing up sesh, we gathered into our groups and trundled to the Pavillion where our Barefoot Benefit was being held. We checked our shoes in at the door and got to dancing to some of Launie's best local acts. There was a huge turn out of public which was so fantastic to see!
We returned home finally to the backpackers and fell pretty much right to sleep, taking advantage of the last time that we'll have a mattress on this trip.
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Day 4
Day 4 was moving on into the wider world from our homey tassie tour. We had a little free time before the bus came to collect us from Launceston, which was mostly spent trying to get all our stuff in order and lunches made. The mood was super excited as we gathered outside and boarded the bus that took us to Launceston airport where there were some small dramas with luggage allowance (gotta love a 15kg limit) and had a minor heart attack as a few of us were called back up to the service desk, but it was only to re-arrange some seats. We boarded the plane and watched our island disappear underneath us.
When we got to melbourne, a bus came to collect our bags and we got on a separate one that took us to Federation square for a few hours of campaigning at the centre of the city. We got a lot of looks from passers by and a lot of names for the Act as we made our way down Swanston street toward the library across from Melbourne Central, chanting and shouting the whole way.
We hustled everyone on a tram and then a train from Flinders St station to the Oaktree headquarters in Camberwell where we were staying the night. We chilled for a while, watching movies and playing music and just enjoying each others company until one of our crew's parents brought us a feast of curry and rice. It was very om nom. Another of our crew's brother came to visit and in true tassie road trip style, we wrote him a song.
It was an emotional night because it was the last of our purely tassie leg, and we had a last fantastic facilitation session which left us all tied together, both with a big old roll of twine and in the way we felt about each other. We celebrated by playing tickle wars and hiding shoes, and just being in each others company before crashing in preparation for our 4:30am start.
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Day 5
Its the end of day 5- hard to believe its going so fast!!! We had a big one today, so much so that it seems like days ago that we rose at 5:30am and boarded the bus that would take us to Canberra. 50 psyched, passionate and crazy-awesome tassie kids all piled onto that bus before the crack of dawn, breakfasting on a feast of bread and rolls and sharing stories about our lives back home. We sang, danced, stopped for maccas (and emergency candy supplies), cruised in to visit Gundagai for lunch, slept, coloured our promise flags and behaved like any sugar and caffeine fuelled young people that are trapped in a confined space for hours at a time. Fortunately it was with a lot of people we like :)
At 3pm(ish) we disembarked our faithful bus and joined with the
other 950 ambassadors that had arrived from all over the state. We
compared flash mobs, sang 'wonderwall' in a huge circle and mexican
waved for a bit before battling through the slow process that was
feeding a thousand hungry mouths. Finally it felt real, to be there
at our destination, to see the hundreds of other faces that had
shared similar journeys for the one goal- to see an end to extreme
poverty in our time. We heard from all the wonderful state leaders
and the National Oaktree team, including my fellow AYF steering
committee member Duncan, who was looking pretty swanky in a suit and
purple shirt.
We all sat for a facilitation session from Reach and watched the
videos from all the other road trips, filling our huge pavilion with
a cascade of noise and cheers and massive pride at the hard work and
love of all our country's road trips put together (though the Tassie
love was by far the best). We also got the fantastic news that
Act
signatures had reached approx. 47 000 and still counting!!!
Before long, everyone was ready for sleep in preparation for another early morning and we all retired to our tents (freezing!!!!)
Stay tuned for an update on the MPs breakfast and our first day in parliament!!!!!! Night x
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Day 6
I don't think, as we settled into our sleeping bags last night, that anyone expected temperatures in the minuses, considering it had been such a sunny afternoon. But oh boy did we feel it as the night progressed and frost began to form not only on the outside but also the inside of some of our tents. There were comments from the odd mainlander saying 'you're from tassie, you should be used to this' as we donned every layer that would be even vaguely warm.
Needless to say breakfast inside was bliss despite the fact that it was served at 6am. At this point we farewelled some of our number as two ambassadors from every electorate went to breakfast with approx 140 MPs from around the country, held in parliament house. Those of us that stayed behind caught a slightly later shuttle to the grassy space between old and new parliament houses, driven by Dave the awesome bus driver. We taught other state's our flashmob dances and chants and learned a game called 'ninja destruction' (awesome!), all before the opening plenary. Our speakers included Hugh Evans, CEO of the Global Poverty Project, Jarrod McKenna, Founder of EPYC, Samid Hadid 2010 young rep to the UN, Tom O'Connor CEO of Oaktree and Alphonse Toussaint-one of the Tassie ambassadors. It was a mind-blowing line up and each one spoke with a fire about the issues of poverty and humanity. The rest of the day was spent in sessions. I went to 2 called Aid effectiveness and Creating Social Change, both of which were informative and interesting. We broke for lunch and had a planning session on advocacy in our groups which we could use as a great tool to bring back to our communuities. The closing plenary featured the Hon Malcom Turnbull and Professor Paul Smyth of the Brotherhood of St Laurence (who was a wonderful speaker).
We returned back to camp for a dinner of pizza and had a bit of a 'life after road trip' session about keeping engaged after the momentum of the week has ended. Then came time for open mic and we had some great talent get up on stage to entertain the crowd who were all dancing away before we all headed our separate ways for bed.
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Day 7
Last night wasn't as cold as the one before, and even though we had the option this time to sleep in the food hall, I decided to stick out the cold for one more night. We had to be up and packed and ready to go by an obscene hour- 6:30am from memory. This time we made our way to the Australian National University for our final session. All 1000 of us piled into a massive theatre, rowdy and pumped for the line up. Our first speaker was Chris Varney, an amazing young man that I have had the privilege of working with over the last couple of years through World Vision and who was the 2009 Young Australian Representative to the UN. In his eloquent, quiet, humble speech he told us of his experiences of extreme poverty through visiting countries like India and brought us all back to the reason why we were all there - the personal stories of those we were fighting to emancipate from the bounds of this injustice.
Among other speakers was Viv Benjamin, Advocacy Officer for the Oaktree Foundation and one of the driving forces behind the last 3 road trips in 05,07 and now in 2010. Her story was inspiring and had such a personal aspect- she too brought to the forefront of our minds the people she had met in Bangladesh that asked her why she was 'killing their country', her first experience of extreme poverty at age 10 or 11 and how she became a part of Australia's biggest youth run aid organisation.
After this set of speakers I ran a presentation on the AYF, introducing its history and purpose to my 1000 peers before we broke into state session groups to give feedback in a range of questions regarding Australia's role in completing the MDGs. This session was run by my fellow steering committee member Duncan Lockard, who did a great job facilitating a useful discussion with 1000 people (not the easiest thing in the world). The breakout was fantastic because we had reps from AUSAID as guests to this process; to whom we could directly give our responses which I think was really empowering for the ambassadors. We also heard that we had over 50 000 signatures for the act and that it had been introduced into the lower house!!!!
After this session we were treated with a talk from CEO of World Vision, Mr Tim Costello, who received a standing ovation for his insightful, wise speech. It was amazing to hear from such a stalwart of the cause, we also heard from Tom O’Connor, CEO of Oaktree. The closing plenary ended in a buzz of excitement as all 1000 ambassadors filed out of the theatre and onto buses that took us to the University of Canberra- where the closing concert was being held. There was a myriad of fine local acts that had the crowd going, and a mosh pit to rival the best festivals. We were interrupted from the festivities by a rather inconvenient fire alarm that saw us evacuated from the venue for a good 15 minutes while everything was sorted out. Blue King Brown rocked our socks off with their drum and vocal driven musical genius and then headline act (and in my opinion one of Australia's best and most under appreciated talents) Evermore with a glimpse of their newest album and some of their classics that had the crowd dancing and singing wildly with the last reserves of their energy.
The concert ended on a high note with the fantastic track 'Boys and Girls' and the Tassie group made a beeline to the buses as we were the first group to be leaving the summit. I later listened with jealousy as one of the VIC girls that stayed behind told me of her photo with Evermore's lead singer and how she was given one of their drum sticks (Evermore is my favourite band of all time and this was the first time I had seen them live. Check out their fantastic, iconic Aus album 'truth of the world').
All too soon, rugged up and chilling in the halls of EPIC, it was time for the Tas tribe to board our bus-at a timely 3:30am and after no sleep- and begin the trip home. The 8 hour bus trip didn't seem to last as long as we all wanted it to, having grown into a family in the 8 days we spent on the road, and sooner than I would have liked, I stood to the side of the check in line at the Tiger terminal and watched as my tribe- exhausted, hope filled, bonded - get ready to board their plane back to Hobart.
Road Trip was an experience that I will hold in my heart for a very long time. It was the start of our bid to get to 0.7 by 2015 and see the end to extreme poverty in our lifetime, and what a start it was!!! Thanks to all of the partners and sponsors that made it possible, to all the team that worked so tirelessly to bring this fight to the forefront of peoples minds. We will continue to show this government that 0.7 is the only outcome that is good enough. To join the movement, sign the Act to End Poverty (www.acttoendpoverty.com) or get involved with the Oaktree foundation.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey on the road trip!!
Signing out,
Eva.
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