Age 16
Age is No Barrier for this Young Leader from Surrey
“You have a choice. You can either spend six hours playing video games, or you can get involved and work for change.”
Matthew Warnock is only 16 years old and is driven to action. At the age of 14, Matt started a non-profit organization named H2O (Hope 2 Others) Canada. The organization’s mandate is to empower youth, and to raise money and build water filters in Ghana. He has been to Ghana twice, and is returning for a third time and bringing with him a group of high schools students to work on the project.
“I do what I feel I should. I should be the change that I wish to see in this world,” says Matt, borrowing his inspiration from Gandhi. Matt has always been a global citizen. He has traveled extensively with his family, and his parents encouraged him to volunteer with organizations like the Food Bank at a young age.
When he was 11, Matt had the opportunity to travel to Ghana to visit an uncle. During his stay, he helped build water filters and latrines. Two of the friends that he made on that trip, Sadat and Selina, died shortly afterwards from a lack of access to clean water. Matt subsequently learned that millions of people around the world die every year from a lack of access to clean water, a situation that he finds unacceptable. This seminal experience motivated him to devote his energy to making a difference.
Matt is aware that other youth may not have had the same opportunities as him, such as traveling at a young age or having globally-minded parents. But he believes that we are all capable of getting involved, and that it comes down to a personal choice: “Some people say they don’t have time to be involved, or that they don’t have money to become more ‘green.’ But you have a choice. You can either spend six hours playing video games, or you can get involved and work for change.” Matt believes that global change is about simple steps, such as picking up a piece of garbage from the ground, or turning the lights off after you leave a room.
And it’s the youth of today that Matt is particularly hopeful about. He believes that there is a social “wave” of action happening around the world, and that it’s driven by young people: “You can either jump on it, or not. We all have surfboards, we just need to catch the wave.” And Matt insists that it’s fun. He claims that he is one of the happiest kids on the planet, because he is helping other people.
Part of what’s driving this “wave” is the evolution in technology, and the development of social media, all of which can have a positive effect on raising young people’s awareness here in Canada about global issues. Matt sees it like a chess piece in a chess game – social media are just one tool of many, and they’re great for networking. “But we have to be careful,” he cautions, “because we can spend hours on our computers and that wastes valuable time.”
“The youth of today will be taking over in about 20 years and we’re going to face some huge challenges – global warming, lack of clean water, deforestation – and we need to be ready. So why wait 20 years to act? We need to start now.”
