Aims far from trivial

LOCAL aid activists are gearing up for a busy Youth Week and are calling on the community to lend their hearts and minds to the cause.
Members of Vision Generation (VGen), the national youth association of World Vision Australia, will take part in a couple of events to coincide with National Youth Week, which officially runs from Saturday, 1 to Sunday, 9 April.
The first fundraiser is a trivia night to be held at St Joseph’s Parish Hall, Boronia, on Friday, 31 March, and the second a treasure hunt in Melbourne’s CBD two days later.
The events are being run to support two distinct causes that fit with VGen’s mission to inspire, educate and empower young people in the fight against global poverty and injustice.
The trivia night is being organised by a team of volunteers around Ferntree Gully, and aims to raise money to improve farming conditions in Ecuador.
Farmers in the South American nation struggle against an increasingly high level of soil erosion, a situation VGen seeks to rectify by implementing permaculture.
The aid initiative will assist farmers through education and training to introduce sustainable farming systems and improve their local ecosystems.
With a healthier environment, farmers’ crops will produce greater yields and thus contribute to a higher level of food security in their communities.
Ferntree Gully resident and VGen vice-chairman Chris Varney hoped for a good level of community support for the trivia night.
“These farmers and their families have to endure the hardships of extreme poverty due to their farming conditions.
“If this night can raise over $3000, Ferntree Gully and Belgrave residents will be making an amazing difference,” he said.
The second event, entitled “Treasurer Hunt – The Amazing Race Against Poverty” will take place on Sunday, 2 April in support of the Make Poverty History campaign.
The game will be modelled on Channel 7’s Amazing Race, and will feature teams of three to four participants tearing across the CBD to gather aid tokens, aided by a series of cryptic clues.
Anyone interested in taking part in the trivia night or treasurer hunt can find out more by contacting Chris Varney at fundraising@vgen.asn.au or on 0432 405 384. Residents can also refer to VGen’s website, www.vgen.org.