The danger with events like Live8 is that they support the view that aid alone will work. Right now there is obviously a need to help developing countries right now, but we need to prevent dependency on aid. The best thing we can do is support fair and eventually free trade.

I think the concerts like Live8 are a really good way of bringing attention to this issue – especially with the younger generation. Some people from my school went to the last one in London and by the sounds of it had an amazing time! But music and celebrities alone aren’t going to change much – its going to take people with power to change things before we rid the world of poverty.

More needs to be done that just giving money to these countries – who checks that the money is going to where it is really needed?

This is fundamentally about fairness – we need to change the rules about trade so that developing countries have the opportunity to grow their economies for themselves. Also, it’s because people in those countries didn’t have a choice as to where they were born – everybody should have the chance to succeed no matter where you are from.