Meet Global Citizen Festival's founder, Hugh Evans

Brut America

He's on a mission to eradicate extreme global poverty. And he's doing it by hosting one of the biggest music festivals on earth.  Meet Global Citizen Festival's founder, Hugh Evans.

Transcript

00:00If you want to see an end to extreme poverty by 2030,

00:03join with me in making the global citizen zero together.

00:09We need all of your voice.

00:13Thank you guys, our Global Citizen Foundation.

00:21Global Citizen is about people who identify with the world as their country

00:26as much as their own individual country.

00:30Global Citizen is about people who identify with the world as their country

00:34as much as their own individual country.

00:44And there was one night in the Philippines that changed my life forever,

00:47where we were taken to a slum in the center of Manila called Smoky Mountain.

00:51It's a community built on top of a rubbish dump

00:53where the whole infrastructure revolves around scavenging.

00:57And so the children run after the garbage trucks

00:59and they try to get bits of scrap metal,

01:01a piece of food and things that they can recycle.

01:04And that night I was placed in the care of a kid my own age named Sunny Boy.

01:08And when it came time to go to sleep,

01:10we lay down on this concrete slab the size of half my bedroom

01:13with myself and Sunny Boy and the rest of his family,

01:16seven of us in this line.

01:19And I'll never forget that night because I didn't sleep at all,

01:22I just lay awake thinking to myself,

01:25it really is pure chance that I was born where I was born

01:28and he was born there.

01:42There was this tipping point moment.

01:45Oak Tree was already a few years old and I think I was 21 at the time.

01:52And the G20 world leaders were coming through my hometown of Melbourne.

01:56And me and my mate Dan, we had this idea to run this small concert

02:00called the Make Poverty History Concert

02:02because we were inspired by what Bono and Bob Geldof had done before us.

02:06And we thought it was going to be a really small concert

02:09on the eve of the G20.

02:11But one day it suddenly took off when I got a phone call from Bono

02:14and he said in his thick Irish accent,

02:16hey boys, I'm coming to Melbourne and I'd like to perform at your concert

02:20and I'd like to perform with Pearl Jam.

02:22And we thought it was a prank call at the time,

02:24but sure enough, it was real.

02:34The following day we got a phone call from the United Nations in New York

02:38who asked us if we could take this movement all around the world

02:41and that's when Global Citizen was born.

02:50Global Citizen

03:00We have 11.5 million members around the world now taking action

03:04and the way you can even come to a Global Citizen festival

03:08is through your actions.

03:10Your actions are your currency.

03:12You can't buy a ticket to Global Citizen,

03:15you have to earn it through calling on world leaders

03:20and advocating for change.

03:22Whether you take a petition, a phone call, a tweet,

03:25all of your actions earn you points

03:28and you use those points to come to Global Citizen for free.

03:31And that's really the engine of our movement,

03:34the actions of citizens.

03:44We're more connected than ever.

03:46What happens here when it comes to things like global warming,

03:50when it comes to things like fighting poverty,

03:52when it comes to all kinds of issues,

03:54what happens here affects people all around the world.

03:56And so with that in mind,

03:58I think it would be great for all of us

04:00to think of ourselves as Global Citizens.

04:02I believe every movement has waves

04:04and this is one of the biggest waves tonight.

04:06We want to encourage him to tweet Obama over the next few days

04:09and encourage him to put global poverty on the international agenda.

04:13We're also going to encourage people

04:15to sign the petition on globalcitizen.org

04:19for the eradication of polio.

04:24We never thought it was going to become an annual event

04:27and grow globally

04:29until the day after

04:31when Stevie Wonder's agent and manager

04:34called and said, you know, Stevie wants to headline year two

04:37and we said, you know, there is no year two

04:40and he said, there is now, there is now, guys.

04:43And then a few years later,

04:45Chris Martin of Coldplay

04:48called us and said, you know, I want to be part of this

04:50and I want to help you take this all around the world

04:52and so that year,

04:54he helped us take it with Jay-Z

04:56to India for the first ever huge event

04:58focused on the issue of water

05:00and sanitation access in India

05:02and then the following year to the G20

05:04in Hamburg, Germany

05:06with Shakira

05:08and with Pharrell

05:10and then a year after that, a few years after that

05:12we went with Beyonce and Jay-Z

05:14to South Africa

05:17for Nelson Mandela's 100th anniversary

05:19and the most extraordinary artist

05:21showed up and it was an amazing

05:23campaign focused on

05:25the issues of

05:27you know, something as important

05:29as access to sanitary pads

05:31and napkins for girls in schools

05:33through to investment

05:35in health and education

05:37through to water and sanitation

05:39global health, these were the issues

05:41we were championing and that's how the movement

05:43has grown very organically.

05:47A film by

05:50A film by Jay-Z

05:53Jay-Z

05:55Jay-Z

05:57Jay-Z

05:59Jay-Z

06:01Jay-Z

06:03Jay-Z

06:05Jay-Z

06:07Jay-Z

06:09Jay-Z

06:11Jay-Z

06:13We must look beyond ourselves

06:16with empathy and compassion

06:18for those we know

06:20and those we don't

06:22We need to lift up all of humanity

06:24and make sure that no person

06:26or community is left behind

06:28We can't let up now

06:30The vaccines are safe and we're working

06:32with leaders around the world to share more

06:34vaccines and boost production

06:36to make sure every country has

06:38the vaccines they need

06:40I think we see it during a pandemic

06:42more than ever that a disease that originated

06:44on one side of the earth ends up on the other side

06:46of the earth overnight

06:48and so we can't act as though

06:50any man or woman

06:52is an island unto themselves

06:54but we're all living

06:56on this planet together

06:58and therefore even if we don't care

07:00altruistically

07:02about what happens to other citizens

07:04on the other side of the earth

07:06we should care from an enlightened self-interest

07:08because the destiny of those

07:10on the other side of the planet really does

07:12impact you and I every single day

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