It was first run in Tas in 2011, with four of the brightest from that year going on to run it in 2012, along with a rookie on the Generate scene, yours truly, on board as the fourth facilitator.

I can’t compare this group too much with last year’s, but I can definitely talk about how impressive Tasmania’s 2012 Generators are, and how far those fine folk have come.

From being an enthusiastic, eager bunch, a little wet behind the ears, and with a healthy dose of scepticism about the journey this kooky facilitation team were about to take them on, to the now educated, committed and capable team of change makers.

We definitely can’t claim it all, as they always were an intelligent bunch that were destined for great things, but I am definitely very proud of the result of Tasmania’s second Generate program.

The first semester saw the Generators gaining development knowledge and increasing their confidence, skills, and group bond through the public speaking master class/game show and other such enjoyable activities.

They got planning their first big event, the Tas Generate Live Below the Line Barrel, and despite its share of setbacks, I was thrilled to see the raging success it was, and consequent swagger the Generators acquired when they had just a small glimpse of what they were capable of.

As the end of semester drew near, we focused on skills such as time management and goal setting which would serve them well with not only their Generate work and subsequent activism, but also with the pointy end of the uni semester.

The mid year retreat came and went. A style of retreat that only a crew of Andy Millhouse, Molly Ferrier, Sophie Moore, Rohan Nanthakumar and lucky me could pull off, and the Generators were amped for round two.

This is where we had a venue change, feedback was taken on board and we upped the ante. Better knowledge, more skills, and we encouraged their development through Generate Plus and running more Food For Thought – there was no stopping these guys.

Group projects were planned with unanticipated passion and ability, and some really high quality events went down (and at time of writing, are still happening!).

We wrapped up the year with a fun session featuring a staged surprise dance to Thriller.

Tas Generate 2012 has been one of the most impressive groups I have had the pleasure of being part of.

I can’t wait to see what this lot get up to, and have no doubt that the world ain’t seen nothing yet when it comes to this group of dedicated, effective agents of change from the lil’ island.

Keep an eye out all ; )

by Jack Welsh – Tas Generate Facilitator

The post TAS Generate 2012 by Jack Welsh appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

This blog post was written by Sionnie Kelly, a SA Generator as part of Blog Action Day 2012. Find out more about Blog Action Day or jump on Twitter using the hashtag #BAD12 or #PowerofWe.

“Come on, Come on, Leave me breathless!” my phone sang at me breaking me from the intense focus I had placed on my dinner.

As I started blankly at my phone it occurred to me that I didn’t recognise the number.

“Hello?” I asked tentatively.

“Hi Sionnie!” a cheerful voice cried. “I was wondering if you’re still keen to join the Oaktree Foundation’s Generate Program?”

Oh! I thought to myself, I applied for that!

“Umm, yeah sure” I said, into my phone.

“Great,” responded the voice, “we’re holding interviews at UniSA’s City West campus on Tuesday, come along at about 5pm.”

I glanced over at the dining table; having lived in Cambodia only a few short months ago I’d seen the grown men and women begging on the streets, little children standing in front of shops pleading for money or trying to sell little handicrafts.

For me this was one of the reasons why I had filled out an application for Generate.

“Sure,” I answered. “Sounds good, I’ll see you then”.

Little did I realise what I had agreed to at that moment.

After completing the interview I was one of the lucky people to become a member of the Oaktree Foundation’s Generate SA 2012 Program, which allows a group of young people under the age of 26 to learn about poverty and possible ways it can be ended through education and sustainable projects.

This also meant that I was no longer an “I” but part of a greater “we”.

As Generators we worked together to keep each other sane through the Live Below the Line Challenge, meaning that we saw some of our fellow teammates suffer from coffee withdrawals, experience accidental flying pasta chaos and even some fishy baking mishaps.

As a team we persuaded our friends to donate their money and sometimes even their time to join the challenge and help end extreme poverty.

As we called old friends we started to see how keen people were to donate and offer their support, quite a few of them loved being involved but were unsure of how to go about it.

Some people donated without even been asked and others surprised us by their generosity.

We discovered that we were united by a common cause, a shared experience that was binding us altogether.

From here we built up our numbers not only for the cause but to partially claim victory over Victoria and New South Wales, which provided good incentive and kept morale high.

When the ‘Live Below the Line’ campaign came around 70 people in Generate SA took up the challenge, more than double our actual number, with hundreds of others donating money towards the plight.

We were no longer a team of Generators trying to make a difference, but a community of people doing the best we could to ease the burden of poverty that countless people endure on a daily basis. And that is the Power of We.

The post Blog Action Day 2012: The Power of We appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

We’ve already had our first event, held on the 17^th of August. It was called the Oaktree Foundation Gala and raised a WHOPPING $3020. It was seriously an awesome, awesome night filled with young and old alike. Everyone was getting into the whole atmosphere when Keyta and Jono from the ACT Oaktree team spoke a bit more about why and what this event was about and the work of Oaktree. There was dancing and music and some pitchy singing but such a fab evening!

The generators are loving their sessions and after the feedback from mid-year retreat we have changed and modified the program at times to make it more challenging and engaging for our super bunch! For example, we are spending more time on debates and discussion after every food for thought. We recently had an intense debate on human trafficking.

All in all, we’re getting ready to say goodbye as Generate comes close to the end, but we know that what we have learnt and are yet to learn in the last few weeks is indescribable and will stay with us for a long time, along with the amazing people we have met and the friendships that will most likely last a lifetime.

-Tanya Gupta (ACT Generate Facilitator)

The post What has ACT Generate been up to? appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

We were about halfway through a typical Tuesday evening Generate session when she appeared.  Awkward timing, really. In their passion for unconventional motivational techniques, our four facilitators were literally rolling on the floor while belting out some superficially altered lyrics to Flo Rida’s “Whistle.” It was embarrassingly inspiring.

As the music ended, a hauntingly familiar voice called from behind us.  ”Um, guys? What the hell?”

As if choreographed perfectly, our heads swung around in perfect synchronization. I imagine that, for her, the uniform motion and collective spark of surprised recognition must have been more than a little amusing. Weighed down by what seemed to be almost unbearable fatigue, the tired, lined face of Ester did not smile.

“I need your help,” said the apparition grimly. “Please, all of you, come with me.”

Noemie’s fists clenched. “You told us we would have more time. They’re not ready yet.”

Ester sighed heavily. “I wish I had more time to give you. It’s now or never.”

I don’t know which of the Generators followed first. But within seconds, like lemmings, every last one of us was out that door, flocking behind Ester, voicelessly plummeting with her into the treacherous sea of the night.

“When I left for Sydney, I didn’t tell you the whole story,” Ester began in a hollow, worn-out voice. “Remember the cut the government made to the aid budget? Gillard’s idea. To avoid suspicion. She’s one of ours.”

Seeing our blank looks, she continued. “In reality, Gillard was giving much more to the cause. I have no idea how she hid it, but…” she managed a small smile. “There’s a branch of the government. Based in Sydney. We’ve spent billions in development research. It took us years, but… we made an astonishing discovery.”

Noemie took over. “It turns out that all social inequality is the work of one man. Whenever a corrupt government official pockets aid money, he’s carrying out ‘His’ orders. Whenever a law is passed which promotes slavery or sexism, he has been hard at work.”

The Subi train station loomed before us as Ester continued, ”They shipped me out to Sydney for the last stages of planning. See, we had finally discovered ‘His’ lair, cleverly hidden deep beneath the Subiaco train station. This lift here?”

She gestured at the elevator running down to the platform. “It goes down an extra level.”

Noemie looked guiltily at us. “Ester’s contribution to the research team was to figure out just how to infiltrate ‘His’ defences, so that we could take ‘Him’ out. She’s been reporting her findings back to me. I’ve been training a special task force specifically for this purpose.”

She let that sink in. Ester confirmed our fears. “I wanted to give Noemie more time to train you. But a mole in the Gillard government has warned ‘Him’ that we’re closing in. He could relocate any day. With 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty (over SIXTY times the population of Australia!), we just couldn’t afford to lose ‘Him’ again.”

Amanda finally broke the silence of the Generators, giving voice to the growing confusion that we were all feeling.
“But we haven’t been trained for anything like this!” she quacked.

Noemie chuckled. “You’re better qualified than you think.” With that cryptic remark, she pressed the button to summon the lift.

Somehow, we summoned the courage to pile into that elevator. Ester lifted a hidden panel in the wall, flicking a switch labelled “UNDER.” The elevator descended down toward the platform. But instead of slowing as we approached the train level, we continued downward.  Shrouded in complete darkness for what seemed like far too long, we finally felt the deceleration in the pits of our stomachs. A tiny sliver of red light widened as the lift doors slid smoothly apart.

In front of us lay an all-too-familiar contraption. It looked like a large balance. Situated beneath either end was a large red button marked “ALARM.” We didn’t even need to hear Ester’s explanation.

“This is the first of many obstacles. You need to get the entire team onto the other side of the balance in order to venture on. Nobody may step off the balance until at least six of you are on it, and you must get off two at a time. If either end hits the alarm, all is lost.”

Someone screamed.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The post Generate Fanfiction by WA Generator Chris appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

After all having a relaxing and fun break, Generate is back!  It is a bit hard to believe that we are already half way through!  We kicked off the first session of Generate phase 2 outside of the office. With Oaktree Queensland in the process of moving offices our usual space for Generate had become unavailable and so, with currently no space for four weeks we decided to improvise! While praying that it wouldn’t rain and managing to keep warm by sitting extra close we set up picnic rugs and candles outside of the gallery at South Bank to have Generate, discussing topics such as the upcoming projects, camp, Ba Futuru, and a brief history of East Timor.

Snapshot of the projects

The planning is well underway for the projects which are supporting Ba Futuru or helping to raise awareness about poverty. Calum, Hailey, Emma and Cindy for instance are thinking about connecting Calum’s high school with Schools 4 Schools which will help to create awareness. The headmaster has even already allocated Oaktree a portion of their fundraising. Additionally Gabby, Tilini, Lauren, Hannah and Melanie’s group have the idea to fundraise and create awareness through a guest speaker and/or music night.

The post QLD Generate – August update appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

INTRODUCING Liz Rhodes, National Generate Director and Annie MacDonald, National Assistant Generate Director!

Liz has been involved in Oaktree since 2010, when she started as the South Australian Generate Manager. She’s a fan of the Biebs (don’t hold it against her) and loves going for walks on the beach to relax.

Why do you love Generate?

I LOVE Generate because it gathers like-minded young people together to contribute to something meaningful; ending poverty. We take this seriously, but the program is created in a way that inspires creative thinking, challenges people in ways they aren’t usually, and builds on and develops new skills to contribute to this movement.

Why is education such an important tool for change?

Education can break the cycle of poverty. It gives people not only the knowledge they need to get a job, but basic life skills such as communication and people skills. Education is fundamental to the work Oaktree does and we have seen great changes in the lives of people because of it.

Have you ever done the MDG dance in public?

Yes and yes! My favourite dance of all time. I plan on busting it out at Australia’s Got Talent auditions sometime…

Have you travelled?

I travelled to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands with Oaktree a couple of years ago, where we were fortunate enough to visit the Yangis Community School – amazing! I also went to Europe last year, and planning a trip to Cambodia this September – so excited!

Annie first became involved in Oaktree when she went on the 2010 Make Poverty History Roadtrip. Her favourite time of year is summer for the music festivals, beach, picnics, fruit, cider and balmy evenings!

Why do you love Generate?

Young passionate people getting together, having fun and making a difference. What’s not to love?

Why is education such an important tool for change?

Whether at home in Australia in programs like Generate or in developing countries, I do believe that education is the key to big change. It’s sustainable, it’s empowering and it’s inspiring. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Mandela.

What is your favourite relaxation activity?

A bubble bath with candles and heaps of pretty smelling things and my relax playlist cranked up; think Josh Pyke, Bon Iver, City and Colour – the ultimate chill-out

If you had a superpower, what would it be?

Definitely to teleport. Then I’d teleport from a Maccas run after a cold night out straight into my bed. Bed to shower. Bed to uni. Adelaide to Paris. Back to Adelaide to pick up a change of clothes. Amazing.

The post Generate Profiles: Liz and Annie! appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

It’s all over, well, it is for us at least.

Luckily, we get to return to ‘normal’ lifestyles, to feed our bellies and return to our everyday ways. Hopefully we have gained from this experience a very tiny snapshot into what a person living on $2 a day experiences. Of course, this experience is limited by the fact that we still had many of the luxuries of our everyday lives (hot showers, transportation & heaters in this cold weather!). I don’t believe that we should never feel guilty for being blessed with opportunity. In fact, we are using this opportunity to help others who aren’t in the same position as us. So for that reason – a massive congratulations to everyone who made it through the week (even to those who had a few extra crackers here and there!). Because to attempt to do so is to acknowledge the 1.4 billion people out there who have no choice but to live in the hungry, desperate and despairing circumstances of poverty.

Furthermore – Generators should feel ecstatic about their fundraising efforts, and moreover, for adding fuel to the conversation about poverty. These are two key ways by which we can see extreme poverty ended in our lifetime – and together we have taken an impressive step towards realising that goal.

Tonight at Generate we had a group reflection about our experience of Live Below the Line. There were a variety of thoughts and opinions but a few that many of us shared. Firstly, a greater appreciation for food and a realisation of just how much food we actually waste (ie. gets left in the back of the fridge and forgotton about). I always seem to have left over food on my plate which goes into the bin (but now goes to my new chickens) – but during LBL I was scraping every last grain of rice and really treasuring each mealtime – and I must say appreciation was a valuable lesson to learn.

I was also struck by just how much your body and mind are affected by a lack of food. By the end of only the first day, I felt completely flat, depressed and lifeless. Imagine the feeling of hopelessness comes with being unable to lift yourself out of these circumstances! Being unable to send your children to school, unable to feed them and unable to treat them with medicine when they are sick would be a degrading and heartbreaking thing to live with every single day.

For this I have to commend Generators for their amazing efforts. I have seen many friends (and myself) massively progress through the fundraising. Most of us started off a bit daunted by the task of asking others for donations – and by our team goal of $20,000! However, at the moment we collectively are at approx $18,500 and I have no doubt by the end of the week we’ll have smashed our goal!

The fundraising process was also amazing for practising our pitching and communication skills, and for further honing our knowledge about LBL (some of us were asked pretty tricky questions about annual financial statements etc!!).

Generators everywhere should be extremely proud for being an inspiration to their friends, family and communities. This year looks like the most successful LBL so far – and that is due to the awesome efforts of everyone involved.

Congratulations on a fantastic year of LBL. I hope that the experience opened your eyes and hearts to the experiences of those living in extreme poverty. We can all look forward to seeing the good that our fundraising efforts will do in PNG.

The post Back above the line appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

There’s less than one week to go until LBL begins, and I can feel the anticipation growing in Generate as we go full swing into our fundraising efforts!

And for me, what better way to go into Live Below the Line, than knowing that through my fundraising efforts last week – I have won the opportunity to be the Official LBL blogger for Generate and share my experiences as a first time LBL-er with you guys!

That said, this wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the encouragement of the Tasmanian Generate Team!

The story goes like this…

Two Saturday’s ago, while buried in assignments and desperately searching for useful textbooks at my local library (yes, studying on a Saturday afternoon…) I received my weekly Generate email. Our team manager had set a goal – for everyone to raise at least $100 by Monday’s meeting. However, in my frantic state of ‘assignment completing’ – I misread this amount as being $300!

I looked up my LBL dashboard, and, as expected, my rice bowl was TOTALLY empty. Amount raised so far = zero. I was at the very bottom of Generate Tas fundraisers – and not too proud to admit it!

My situation: I had to raise $300 in two days – and also had to write another 3,500 words for my assignments! This probably would be enough to make most people hit the panic button – but I decided to get cracking on my fundraising – right then and there in the library.

My first fundraising weapon of choice – like many other Generators – was to start with Facebook. I felt nervous about the idea of asking people for money, especially some people who I haven’t I spoken to in ages (and I was scared that they’d get offended or shut me down!). So I decided that if I really wanted to make people interested and feel like a part of the initiative – I’d have to make the messages as personal as I could (while still trying to send them out to as many people as possible). I created a short three-sentence blurb about the LBL with my link attached, and posted it in individual messages to hundreds of my contacts. While it may not seem like much, I added a “Hey (name of person) how are you?” to the start of each message.

Yes, after sending hundreds of these messages Facebook did suspect me of being a Spambot and asked me to verify my identity, but the overall response was great! Many people wrote back saying that they were willing to donate and were proud of me for doing LBL. Others said that they would willingly donate, but only because they were happy to see me suffer (I think they were joking – but hey, I don’t mind as long as the donation gets made!).

My donations skyrocketed to $187 by the end of the first night, $312 by the second night, and $678 by the end of that week!

So my tips for fundraising via Facebook would be
• Keep a conversation going between you and your Facebook friends, and send them friendly reminders if they don’t get back to you.
• Whenever somebody makes a donation, thank them in a private message and at the end of each day thank everybody who donated publically on your wall.

While individually messaging people is more time consuming – the results speak for themselves and you help people to feel more connected to the cause.

SO TO ALL GENERATORS OUT THERE:

The message to generators out there is to set your sights high! While my team goal was $100 by Monday’s meeting, by accidentally thinking it was $300 – I raised well over that amount! I’ve now had to raise my original goal amount from $300 to $1,000!

The deeper you make your rice bowls – the more you’ll raise!

Good luck!

G.

The post Get a jumpstart – how to raise $700 in 7 days! appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

Amanda, Chris and Daniel  - or Team Rocket as they call themselves – are Generators from WA who are doing Live Below the Line for a whole month. Amanda writes about their experience so far:

So Chris decided that it be a great idea to do Live Below the Line for a month. I guess it took a while, but Daniel and I got on the band wagon and together we formed Team Rocket : I called Meowth, Chris called James, which left Daniel to be the oh-so-lovely Jesse. With very little planning, we did our first round of shopping. We made it through, we shopped again with almost just as little planning and here we are in Day 14!

Why we all wanted to do Live Below the Line

Amanda: I can’t imagine what my life would have been like had I not gone to school. I believe so strongly in the power of education. At the same time I want to look back and say I can’t imagine what my life would have been like had I not done Live Below the Line. My LBL journey could not only be an amazing turning point in my life; but I’m confident that it is a turning point and in the lives of those 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty.

Chris: Live Below the Line is amazing because it puts participants in the position of the people that it aims to help, people who live on less then $2 a day of which there are 1.4 billion of them. I believe that through this unique, challenging Live Below the Line experience an amazing passion will be stirred inside me and all the other participants throughout Australia. And with this passion will come great dedication towards committing our lives towards ending extreme poverty and becoming the generation of change.

Daniel: Live Below the Line is an incredible campaign and I’m so convinced of how incredible it is. It does two immensely important things in the fight towards ending extreme poverty: it raises awareness and it raises money. The Live Below the Line experience is like no other and it really portrays the conditions of extreme poverty in a meaningful way. The money raised is doing amazing things in Papua New Guinea, providing kids education which is what I see as the best way to break the poverty cycle. No matter what we do it for and how we do it, Live Below the Line connects young Australians all around the country to fight for this one unbelievable but totally achievable cause: ending extreme poverty.

What we’ve learned so far

When we sat down to talk about what we had learnt through our LBL experience so far, we decided to be honest.

Chris admitted that he founds his diet hadn’t changed much, which made him realize that maybe his poor uni student lifestyle isn’t the healthiest of life paths… but overall in terms of diet, we are all doing alright so far other then the occasional cravings. What we all agreed on was that through this experience we’ve had a limitation on what kind of choices we could make. When you’re trying to eat on $2 a day you can’t be eating whatever you want. Its no longer as simple as “let’s buy that $10 sandwich” – it becomes a matter of working out nutritional value, cost and how long each item can last for. We also have to be limiting when we eat and how much and even where we go, as we can’t be studying in cafes anymore if we’re just ordering cups of tap water. Chris and Daniel have also been walking about 10 minutes from their house to collect their drinking water from a tap and they’ve admitted it’s been a real inconvenience. Chris has even gone thirsty at home a few times because he found the trek for water such an annoyance.

Hard choices are a big aspect of living in extreme poverty. Your choices become limited when you’re trying to take care of all the important aspects of life – food, water, electricity, medicine – on $2 a day.

Even while we’re doing Live Below the Line, we’re still incredibly lucky. Unlike the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty, we can still go out and get an education, we could still buy medicine or go see a doctor if we got sick, we can still take hot showers and sleep in our warm beds. Even thought it’s inconvenient and tough at times, we still have good access to safe and clean water and enough food for us to get by.

When something as basic as food becomes a thing that you need to think about carefully because there are so little options for you then I can’t imagine what life would be like if it wasn’t just food that had a $2 a day restriction on it.

What we’ve achieved

All of us collectively aim to raise $1555 and so far we have raised $585.

We’ve definitely bonded together as a group. I like referring to us as Team Rocket and I love that we’re our own little cohesive group. These past few weeks have made us into more passionate, dedicated people. Even though we haven’t reached that far in terms of money raised yet, we’re striving so hard towards that. I stay awake at night excited about all these ideas for fundraising. Chris and Daniel come up with amazing ideas to push our limits and drive us out of our comfort zones so we work closer towards understanding what it’s like to live in extreme poverty.

Live Below the Line has been a unique experience for us and we’re excited that the money we raise will go towards the best and most efficient ways to pull people out of extreme poverty.

It’s hard, but I know we’ll look back and be grateful that we went through the Live Below the Line experience. We’re going to be grateful for everything we learned and everyone we helped and everyone we meet and everyone we inspired. Talk to us on May 11th and ask us how it was. We’ll have amazing stories to tell.

The post Team Rocket lives below the line – for a month! appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.

My Generate experience began with a leap of faith into something that I really did not know that much about. All I knew is that I wanted to be a young person involved in ending extreme poverty. In March I turned up, bags packed and thinking cap on, to the Generate retreat and I can truthfully say that this has been a highlight of my year so far. The retreat introduced us to the key ideals and goals of the Generate program and The Oaktree Foundation and the activities and information sessions that were held empowered and inspired us to do bigger and better than before!

Not only did we get an information overload but we had so much fun, a little too much perhaps! Highlights included the scavenger hunt, having a group spoon with people I had only meet a few hours earlier, epic games of ninja destruction, turning a male facilitator into a drag queen with face paint and last but not least, meeting an amazing group of people. After attending the camp and four weekly sessions, it is clear just how well our group meshes. Not only do we work together cohesively but we are becoming a tight knit group of friends, held together by our amazing facilitators and manager that give us never-ending guidance, laughs and of course, snacks for energy.

Currently, we are all busily preparing for Live Below the Line and I think I speak for all of my fellow Generators when I say we are engrossed in the content in each session, which is not only informative but interactive and thought provoking.

I feel privileged to be involved in a program that allows like-minded young people to fulfil their goals of ending world poverty and helping other people who are so devastatingly disadvantaged compared to us. I look forward to second semester when we can put our skills and knowledge into practice and hold a mind blowing event!

The Tassie Generate team is not a force to be reckoned with, fuelled with passion and ninja destruction skills; we are going to fight our hardest to end world poverty!

The post Meet Emilie – one of our Tasmanian Generators! appeared first on The Oaktree Foundation.