Today we are looking at the life of a young Australian who, at only 31 years of age in 2014, had already spent two-thirds of his life working to relieve people around the world from poverty. In 2004, at age 21, he was named at Young Australian of the Year and the Junior Chamber International named him as one of their outstanding young persons of the world, an honour he shared with Queen Rainier of Jordan and a few others. His name is Hugh Evans. Hugh Evans was born in Melbourne in 1983.
He grew up in Hugh, an eastern suburb of Melbourne and he attended Cary Grammar School. At age 12, in first-year high school, he participated in a World Vision 40-hour famine and his interest in the plight of the poor was stimulated. He set himself the goal of raising $500 which he achieved. The following year, 1996, he doubled his goal to $1,000.
He also met this target. He won a World Vision sponsored contest to visit development programs in the Philippines and was moved by his encounters in the slums of Manila. Evans went on, a student exchange program towards stock school in the Himalayas in India two years later. Evans is the co-founder of both the Oak Tree Foundation in 2003 and the Global Poverty Project.
He has received domestic and international accolades for his work in promoting youth advocacy and volunteerism in order to reduce extreme poverty in developing countries. All leaders in Oak Tree must be no more than 26 years of age, so Hugh himself has moved into an advisory role as he is older than 26. The Oak Tree Foundation raises awareness of extreme poverty, fund raises to help those who are directly involved with poverty and endeavours to influence government policy in Australia at the highest level. Oak Tree had 125,000 supporters and 350 volunteer staff as at December 2011 and in that year it generated Australian $1.76 million in revenue.
By October 2013 Oak Tree had an office in every Australian state and in the Australian capital territory. These are some of the projects Oak Tree runs. In Cambodia they have a program to redevelop school environments to better match the climate and culture. In East Timor Oak Tree provides income generation opportunities for young people in the Aloo region and has a project to help people manage and resolve violent situations peacefully.
In South Africa Oak Tree has a project to reduce the incidence of HIV infection among high school students in the Tiles State. Christianity has provided two evidence with his inspiration. As a child he attended St. Hilary's Anglican Church in Q.
At age 13 he decided to be a devout Christian and he saw in Jesus such a tremendous radical love and service for the poor that he thought, Man why can't we all do the same and he has not looked back since then. On an ABC TV interview in 2004 at age 21 he said, When you come to the end of it and see that there's one life changed it just makes it all worthwhile. Like one day we were down in South Africa recently and there was this girl, Thab Sahle. She was only 14 years old and she'd become the head of her household of 10 brothers and sisters and cousins because her mum had died of HIV age.
She said to meet Hugh the community resource center you're developing is going to provide me with a safe working environment where I'm not susceptible to being raped and abused. Hugh Evans is an Australian Christian putting into action Christ called to care for others. He's making a positive difference for people in poverty in many places around the world.