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Staff and students support Oaktree Foundation

28 September 2005

Monash this week hosted a fund-raising lunch in support of the Oaktree Foundation, an international aid and development organisation led by third-year law/science student Hugh Evans.

Ms Nombuso Dimba with Mr Hugh Evans.

The foundation was established in 2003 by Mr Evans. It is Australia's first totally youth-run aid and development organisation.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard Larkins said that in 2004 Mr Evans was named Young Victorian of the Year, Young Australian of the Year and one of the 12 Most Outstanding Young People of the World.  "Hugh is an awe-inspiring role model for young people and, indeed, for us all," Professor Larkins said.

Mr Evans told his lunchtime audience that Oaktree was helping some of the poorest young people of the world, especially in South Africa, by empowering them through education.

One of Oaktree's challenges is to eradicate the outlawed practice of sexual slavery in Ghana in which young girls and women can be forced into a lifetime of sexual slavery and abuse, as payment for transgressions by their relatives.

In partnership with International Needs, Oaktree is working to free and educate thousands of these slaves and integrate them back into their communities.

Oaktree is also supporting South Africa's World Changers Academy, which helps teenagers find direction for themselves and mentor others.

Ms Nombuso Dimba, a youth leader with the academy, told guests at the lunch that she turned to the academy when financial hardship forced her to quit her studies.

"After I left university I gave birth to a new vision, to go and empower young people who were coming from the same environment as me," Ms Dimba said. "I target teenagers in high schools who are without hope or direction and help them gain skills and become leaders in their own right."

The lunch, at the Monash Staff Club at the Clayton campus, raised more than $2000 for the Oaktree Foundation.

For more information about the Oaktree Foundation visit: www.theoaktree.org.