Oaktree (foundation)

File:Oaktree Logo.jpg

The Oaktree Foundation is a youth run aid and development organization, based in Australia, that raises funds and awareness in order to resource education and community-based initiatives in developing areas. The foundation aims to assist young people in developing communities by promoting education, motivation and sustainability.

Its stated mission is to "empower developing communities through education in a way that is sustainable."

History

The Oaktree Foundation was founded in 2003 by a group of young people in Melbourne, Australia. The Oaktree Foundation is the first of its kind in Australia. The driving force for Oaktree's inception was Hugh Evans (2004 Young Australian of the Year), who had just returned from living and volunteering in the rural valley communities of the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa.

Upon returning to Melbourne in early 2003, Hugh joined with other youth to establish an organization that would aim to combat some of the extensive inequalities that he had witnessed.

Since Oaktree's founding, young people throughout Australia and the world have been inspired into action by Oaktree and all that it stands for.

Bildung

The Oaktree Foundation has targeted education because it believes education is a way of enabling societies caught in a poverty cycle to break out of it themselves. Ultimately the Oaktree Foundation seeks equal educational opportunities for all young people across the world.

Vision

"Young people learning through partnership"

Oaktree believes that educated, empowered and motivated communities are better able to change their future. They recognize that it is by pure virtue of birth and environment that young people in privileged areas of the world have the opportunity to pursue extensive education options, whereas many young people in the developing world are not as fortunate. The Oaktree Foundation believes that every child should have the opportunity to be educated, and that education can assist in breaking the poverty cycle.

The Oaktree Foundation's vision is of young people learning through partnership; young people in the developed world using and expanding their knowledge and skills to help young people in the developing world gain access to quality education.

Mission

• "To empower developing communities through education in a way that is sustainable."

Volunteers

The foundation is made up of volunteers ages 26 and under. Oaktree volunteers spend a lot of time talking in schools, churches, universities and businesses raising awareness about the issues they are passionate about.

The Foundation also has a network of industry professionals who mentor its volunteers and provide them with support and guidance.

School Groups

Oaktree's message of youth empowerment is nowhere more important than in their work with school students. Providing uniquely active and supported opportunities for students to get involved, Oaktree bridges the gap between wanting to be help, and being part of a wider, dynamic movement of young people. Within each school with whom the Oaktree has contact, the students set up an Oaktree club, or 'seed'. These 'seed groups' are where school students can organize fundraising and advocacy related events. This group is the Oaktree presence at their school, and act as motivators, mobilisers and change makers in their school community. They are well supported by the Oaktree Schools Network and often have an interested staff member involved as a mentor and a link to the school.

One Day

One day is the Oaktree Foundation's major annual fundraising event. Oaktree's previous, "Dinners for Life" campaign was renamed one day in 2006. The one day campaign aims to bring communities together by individuals utilizing their skills and passions to run fundraising events on one day. These events are run across the world by schools, universities, churches and community groups with the aim of raising funds for the Oaktree's current development projects in Africa and South East Asia. They also aim to increase awareness of the Oaktree Foundation and deepen event attendee's understanding of issues of poverty and injustice.

Through one day the Oaktree aspires to create and build a stronger sense of community in Australia while simultaneously providing youth in the developing world a chance to break free from poverty.

See also

• Ripple (charitable organisation)

External links

• http://www.theoaktree.org
• http://www.oneday.org.au/
• http://www.schools4schools.org/
• http://www.endchildslavery.org/