28th October, 2005

DANIELLE KIRK was among scores of young people who gathered in Melbourne's city centre this week to take part in a candlelit walk and eight minutes of silence organised by youth-run aid and development organisation, the Oaktree Foundation. The event was organised to encourage governments around the world to meet the United Nation's eight Millennium Development Goals. Kirk - one of the event's organisers - writes of why she took part...

"Stand. The word is multifaceted in its meaning; each implying strength. To me, the Oaktree Foundation’s 'Stand' campaign was an opportunity to unite with young Australians to display our commitment to attaining UN Millennium Development Goals to halve world poverty by 2015. Of the eight MDGs, goal two, to achieve universal primary education by 2015, is most poignant for me. I recently volunteered on the Thai-Burma border and traveled through Asia, my first experiences of true poverty. I met and spoke with internally displaced peoples (IDPs) in Burma and many refugees living in camps and border towns in Thailand. Each and every time they mourned the lack of access to education. In 1999, the World Bank found that Burma’s state spending on education is among the lowest in the world, equivalent to 28 cents per child annually. In eastern Burma, 30 percent of IDP children have never seen a school. Just statistics, but this translates into a reality that many Burmese children leave school with the equivalent of a grade four education, if that. Stand was an avenue for me to stand up for my belief in the possibility of achieving universal education. To stand for changing the world."

For further information about The Oaktree Foundation, visit www.theoaktree.org