Speaking to Scottish actor David Hayman leaves Fiona Longmuir inspired to do better.

The mischievous and warm man who opens the door to the Spirit Aid office in Glasgow is miles away from the cold and cruel characters David Hayman is known for, ushering me inside out of the rain and immediately offering a cup of tea.

Every day, we are bombarded with unthinkable facts and figures about inequality and injustice. Every two seconds, a child dies of hunger. Every seventeen seconds, a child dies from lack of clean water. Two million children are sold into the sex trade every year. Every one of these facts is unimaginable, but we’ve heard them so often that they’ve become meaningless. We’ve become desensitised.

And yet, watching Hayman speak about his charity, Spirit Aid, after his show Six and a Tanner, many of the audience were moved to tears. The words so often repeated suddenly got through. It’s hard to say what makes the difference, what makes people react like that. Hayman acknowledges that his fame probably helps. The fact that the Q&A session is live, with a familiar and respected face creates an atmosphere in which people are more receptive than they would normally be. But perhaps more important was the way that he spoke, and the way he made people feel. Even when speaking of injustice and cruelty, he speaks with tremendous compassion and love for humankind. Instead of making people feel guilty or ashamed, he makes them feel powerful, inspired.

When I say this to him, he looks delighted and claps his hands. He worries that people leave his talks feeling like he’s beaten them over the head. But the shock factor is important, he says, it’s important to give people a bit of a fright and to make them angry. At the moment, most people live in a bubble of apathy keeping us from having the world that we want. People need to be willing to break down the current order and rebuild our society.

He places tremendous faith in young people. We are the most valuable resource that the world has for the future. “We do not inherit the world from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”, he says. It’s up to all of us to stand up for the things we believe in and create the kind of world that we want to live in.

This is a typical example of the way Hayman addresses things. Even when talking about things that make him angry or upset, he finishes with hope. He hopes for better, and he has faith that it will come. He describes himself as “an original hippy, who still just wants to spread peace and love.” This seems to be a very apt description. There is an amazing warmth in his manner; empathy, understanding and love in everything he says. This he was taught by his mother.

“My mother was an angel, barely disguised as a human.” He talks of her kindness and compassion, how she always had time and made space for everyone. But mainly, he talks about her faith in the power of love.

He travels to the communities that Spirit Aid supports at least once a year, and says that if he went there and gave every child in the community a hug, it would almost be enough. The most important thing is to show them that someone truly cares.

When asked for his proudest Spirit Aid moment, he pauses, then tells a story about his time in Malawi. They funded a school meals programme in a high school. Attendance and student marks have shot up since this scheme was introduced, but he says the thing that made him happiest was a conversation he had with a young girl who was lying beneath a tree in the schoolyard. He went to check if anything was the matter, and she said to him, “my belly is full. Now I feel safe. Now I can go to sleep,” and rolled onto her back and fell asleep in the sunshine.

“That’s why we do this,” he says, tears forming in his eyes, “so that wee girl can feel safe. So that wee girl can go to sleep.”

I almost don’t want to ask my next question. Has there been a time when he has been unable to help? His face crumples, and he is silent for another moment. Of course there have been times when he and his colleagues have had to make impossible decisions. In Sri Lanka they met a boy suffering from multiple sclerosis. Spirit Aid bought a machine to keep him alive. However, the machine cost £5000, and a few years down the line, when the machine had to be replaced, Spirit Aid was short on funds, and David had to refuse.

But you have to focus on the victories, however small. For Hayman, every child is worth saving, and no matter how much or how little Spirit Aid affects the bigger picture, if they can keep improving the lives of individual children across the world, it is worth the struggle.