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Father of 3 and our Chairman: David Vaux, is a fierce advocate for education & truly believes in its ability to change the world.
How did you get involved in The LBW Trust? What was your journey like to get here?
I used to play cricket with the inaugural Chairman of The LBW Trust, Darshak Mehta. Quite a few of the directors used to play together, and our cricket team was called the Nondescripts - which was a very apt name for us. We didn’t have a home ground so we were like a wandering team of misguided misfits. Darshak roped me in when he decided to step down about 6 years ago, and I took over as Chairman.
Why cricket? How does cricket and education fit together?
Well, The LBW Trust was essentially started by a group of journalists who were following cricket tours around the world and realised how privileged and fortunate we were here in Australia.
They were all well-educated people themselves and felt that the developed cricket-playing world needed to reach out to the developing cricket-playing world, and to give people a leg up. They cleverly came up with the name of the trust - The LWBT Trust – where The LBW stands for Learning for a Better World. You know for me, education has had a major part in my life; my mother was a school teacher and learning has been a part of my life and is something that I value. When I had the opportunity to join The Trust and sort of ‘payback’ I jumped at the opportunity.
Why do you believe education is important?
Without a doubt, it is so hard to break the poverty cycle without education. If all your skills are basically to do manual labour - whether you’re a man or a woman - you’re always going to be struggling to make a living and to feed your family. So you have to go to education.
All the research that’s being done by the United Nations, and other organisations, clearly shows that with the benefit of education you not only earn more money but you generally tend to have a more stable married environment, less domestic violence and that your children in time are more likely to go on and get a higher education as well.
Also for women in particular, education leads to getting married later on in life, not having teenage pregnancies, and being able to stand up for yourself better - so as a means also to achieve more universal equality I think learning is an essential part of that. Nelson Mandela said that ‘education is the weapon of the poor’ and I think he’s exactly right.
How have you instilled education in your children?
It’s just a part of life, when the kids were little I always tried to get home in time to read them stories at night and I think reading for children is such an important thing. All the kids are still great readers, they’ve had the benefit of being able to travel all around the world, see new cultures and learn that our way of life is not necessarily the only way of life. They have a thirst for knowledge and I think that’s the greatest gift you could give any of your children.
Give them the gift to want to learn because learning then leads them to be able to help people, and help others open their eyes to possibilities and opportunities.
What are your plans for Father’s Day today?
Pretty much: Lockdown. We’ll probably have dinner – my daughter lives up in Brisbane, and one of my sons is currently in Chicago so we’ll probably get together virtually – and it’s also my daughter’s birthday so I think what we’re going to be doing is one of those virtual reality mystery rooms where someone gets murdered and you have to solve the murder case moving from room to room!
Thanks for your time, David!
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The LBW Trust