Well Friday was a fun night. Last week I had training at the Oaktree Foundation to be a Youth Ambassador for the MPH concert. It was pretty good. There were lots of people my age there, most excited about making a difference in the world, which is cool. But there were also too many stats and figures thrown around, like "40% of women in 294 countries have goats who are sick." That might be a made up fact, but some people there were throwing out rubbish like that, and trying to show how smart they are. I don't know lots of stats, I can't tell lots of stories about poor children in Africa or women who didn't know that it was ok to say no to sex, all I know is that I want to make a difference - and that anyone can.
Anyways, my mate Matt and I were partners, and Kel (girlfriend) and Lauren (friend/sister) were also there, partnering up. Our job was to explain to the crowd what MakePovertyHistory was trying to do, to elaborate on the 8 Millenium Goals, ask for support through petitions, and - to me, most importantly - to show them that it doesn't take power, money or age to make a difference. The concert was the idea of Dan Adams, who is only 19 this year. A few weeks ago, the Stand Up campaign was the idea of three uni students that occured over coffee. That's the sort of stuff that encourages me - that people my age can do things that hit people hard.
The concert was awesome. Our passes let us down into the front seated area. We saw... Bono, The Edge, Pearl Jam, Lior, Amiel, Evermore, Eskimo Joe, Hilltop Hoods, Sarah Blasko, Jet, Paul Kelly, John Butler Trio, and there were even indigenous artists. We also heard speeches from... Tim Costello, Hugh Evans (founder/leader of Oaktree - only 24), Irene Banda (human rights activist in Zambia), Trisha Broadbridge and Dan Adams. Oh, and John So. All in all, probably the best gig I'll ever see. DVD out about December 8th.
I took this picture of the opening act - 'UJam' - Bono, The Edge, Pearl Jam. I'll put a link to my other ones later.
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