live below the line

My lovely friend has been promoting Live Below the Line, a charity based challenge, where you have to eat for less than £1 a day for 5 days, in May.


This amount is chosen because 1.4 billion people worldwide live on this amount or less every single day.  It makes you feel a bit guilty, when you think about what you bought in that cafe, or in that supermarket, when you were splashing out to treat yourselves.  It is truly humbling to know that a significant proportion of the world's population are barely managing to get by on so little an amount.


So a couple of friends and I are going to do it.  For me personally, it will be more of a personal challenge rather than to raise money, which will be a secondary purpose.  I have had food problems for quite a significant length of time, and I think this challenge will highlight just what it means to have a Western diet of excess.  I worry sometimes that our society has fallen into decay... including physical decay.  As a population, we eat too much excess, and it makes me a bit angry and a bit sick sometimes.


I am not going to lie: I have huge concerns that I will faint / become ill on day 1.  This is because I have a fast metabolism and whilst I don't eat to abate the hunger straight away, I still feel the effects of hunger.  I am still not too sure how I will eat for £5 for 5 days, unless I hit the Sainsbury's basics section hard. (harder than I already do)


I also have concerns that people will hear about LBLuk or read this and just think, oh what is this going to achieve.  I worry that people think, oh how will this affect me, it's not my business, let's let someone else worry about it.  Poverty is no laughing matter - it is something the developed world as a whole should be ashamed of.  We enjoy our cinemas and TVs and new clothes and books and DVDs and games consoles at the expense of others. It should be within our innate nature to want to stop poverty.


LBLuk is to raise awareness and to bring home the message of what it is like to eat on so little an amount.  We can all do it if we try.  All that is required is some effort and some tactical thinking and some willpower.  I don't see any reason why the majority of my peers could not take up this challenge - a lot of it is due to reluctance to change dietary habits, or the belief that you could not sustain your current diet on so small a cost.  But I am not asking you to do it forever, just for 5 days.  Think about those people who are doing it for significantly longer than 5 days, and not by voluntary choice.  And by accepting this challenge, hopefully we will truly appreciate the meaning of the words 'extreme poverty'.


2 - 6 May 2011.


Carol
xxx






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