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Young West Australian of  the Year Michael Sheldrick is continuing his social justice work in New York.

After recently completing his Law degree at UWA, Michael headed off to the United Nations to concentrate his efforts on his long-running fight against poverty.

He sent the following email to his supporters in Perth last week:

"Earlier this morning we announced the 2nd annual Global Citizen Festival, featuring Stevie Wonder, Kings of Leon, Alicia Keys and John Mayer. Timed to coincide once again with the UN General Assembly in September, the Festival will call for the global community to embrace the ambitious goal of eradicating poverty from the face of the earth by 2030 and will also push for much needed action on the core issues of education, health, women's equality and global partnerships. Further details are available online at globalfestival.com .

"Here is a link to an article I co-authored with our CEO (and incidentally my housemate!), Hugh Evans, that gives an overview of the Festival: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-evans/global-citizen-festival_b_3575857.html .

"It's an incredibly exciting time, but also very nerve-wracking. Needless to say this is the biggest thing I've been part of. Earlier today Hugh told me that I had the most important role to play in the Festival: actually ensuring that the Festival results in real systemic change for the world's poor and connecting the dots between the noise and the policymakers (i.e. the ones who make the decision).

"Hugh said that he would be willing to give me any resources at his disposal to make sure our campaign has a real impact. I'm looking forward to a crazy few months ahead. I'm  meeting with an Under-Secretary General at the UN this evening at our launch event (into  which we will have Stevie Wonder live streaming ) where I'm hoping to confirm the Secretary-General to address the Festival.

"As part of the Festival, we're pushing for funding to put the 57 million kids into primary school who currently go without.

"We've been working with the former British PM, Gordon Brown (now UN Special Envoy for Education), on a petition with Malala Yousafzai - the teenage education activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban in April last year.

"Tomorrow is Malala Day, her 16th birthday, and I'm very humbled to be one of 500 youth delegates from around the world (and one  of about four  Aussies) who will be meeting with Malala at the UN where she will make her first public address since she was shot and where she will present the petition to the UN Secretary General.

"This will ensure that the international spotlight gets shone on the education emergency. Details of this campaign and tomorrow are here .  Please sign it if you have the chance.

"It's exciting times, but lots of work lies ahead and my ultimate hope is that we achieve the change we are seeking."