Hugh Evans
2004 Award

At just 20 years of age, Hugh Evans is dedicating his life to helping the most underprivileged people in this world.

Hugh's passion for helping others began when he was 12 and became involved in World Vision's 40-Hour Famine. He started organising the Famine at his school and personally set himself very high targets. Over the next few years, his school became the highest fundraising school for the 40-Hour Famine in Australia. At age 14, a sponsored trip to the Philippines to see World Vision's work first hand impacted Hugh's life immensely. Sleeping in a slum, Hugh witnessed an entire community built around a garbage dump and saw children scavenging and dying around him. It was a turning point in his life.

This experience led him to found The Oak Tree Foundation, Australia's first entirely youth-run and youth-driven aid and development agency. With over 250 volunteers under the age of 25, it is a movement of young Australians who seek to empower developing communities through education in a way that is sustainable.

"I stand for providing people in the developing world with greater opportunities and I think that a critical part of that is education and how important education is in empowering developing communities."

In its first year, Oak Tree raised over $100,000 to develop a community resource centre in the Valley of Embo in South Africa. This centre now provides more than 1,000 people with the opportunity to receive education for the first time in their lives. Sustainability is important to Oak Tree. This means the projects undertaken have to be owned by the community, run by the community and ultimately working to enhance the community.

Hugh believes young people can do anything given the opportunity. The Oak Tree Foundation "provides an avenue for many other young Australians to also make a difference in this world". Young people are encouraged to use the gifts they already have and what they are already passionate about to serve the poor.

Hugh also established the Youth Ambassador Program with World Vision, which enables young people to go and see the work and participate themselves. Following its approval, Hugh travelled to South Africa as World Visions first Youth Ambassador.

A passionate humanitarian, volunteer and youth leader, Hugh remains humble. He believes people see him as "someone who can act as a representative of young Australians, of Australians that actually want to be out there in the world doing something really good. I am someone who really cares about making a difference in the developing world so if that is what I can be seen as, then that's cool."

Hugh's sincerity, humility and genuineness are what have inspired so many people, young and old, to work towards helping those less fortunate. He is an inspiring individual.