The brainchild of 2004 Young Australian of the Year Hugh Evans and partner Nick Mackay, the foundation aims to break the poverty cycle by helping underprivileged youth receive an education in the developing world.
“Oaktree is about giving young people a chance to get involved in helping the cause. We offer leadership roles where other larger organisations would normally deny young people that opportunity. It’s about young people who don’t just talk about change but create it,” Simpkins says.
“We show that youth can do more than they are actually given credit for. We can actually run our own national organisation and we can run major campaigning events like the Make Poverty History road trips. And in things like this, we are actually leading groups that are run by older people, like Oxfam.”
Over the last five years, Oaktree has supported 11 projects in six countries, indirectly helping a total of 40,000 young |
