small steps towards ending poverty

I first read about Live Below the Line a few months ago, on one of my friend's twitter accounts.  Back then, I thought, "May's ages away, I can plan for it properly!"  Well... May came quickly and I was determined to do the challenge of 5 days of eating on less than £1 a day.  I tried to get people involved - hey, you still can!  Just because it's not 2-6 May anymore doesn't mean you can't try it!

It was difficult, but I did it.  I confess that I did not do all 5 days in one go, I eventually completed it over 10 days.  My reasons for doing so were several-fold.  Firstly, I have a stupidly crazy metabolism, and it's getting more and more unhealthy for me to skip meals. Yes, I eat breakfast now.  75% of the time.  I wanted to do the challenge but be healthy.  It was also the boy's graduation, so we went for a celebratory dinner at a restaurant I have been hassling him about to go to for a long time.  I also didn't have any time to go to the shop to figure out what I wanted.  So I sort of went into the challenge a bit blind.

I confess wholeheartedly that it was not my healthiest moment.  I was actually under the weather for quite a bit, so I didn't want to eat much anyway.  I existed on a diet mostly based on carbohydrates - pasta, oats, cous-cous and chocolate +/- cake. Oh and butter.  And honey.  I love Sainsbury's brand food.  I also bought effervescent vitamin tablets which I calculated into the cost of the £1 a day, to keep me semi-nutritioned.  I also included donated food as part of the cost.  I know I could have cheated, but that would not have been honest to myself.  I also chose not to include the price of water, as I wasn't sure how to calculate that.  I buy in bulk anyway, and I used buy 1 get 1 free deals in order to exist.  The effervescent tablets were the most - I didn't have one every day, but they work out to be 40p each.  That was my one luxury.

For a lot of people, having read the facebook page and the website, they wanted to do it healthily, and to plan everything out properly.  I just wanted to not go hungry, to eat whatever was necessary (but costing less than a pound a day) and to not think about it too much.  After all, a significant proportion of the world's population do NOT wake up every day and think, hm, maybe I will eat this and this today, which will give me this and this vitamin and nutrient.

The 5 day challenge challenges us to think about poverty, and what it actually means, rather than seeing an advert on TV or in the print media and just ignoring it.  By feeling what it feels like, we can now move forward and help to stop poverty.  Hunger hurts; it has a devastating effect.  I donate clothes and books, and some money if I can to charities.  Donations are always welcome to change the course of poverty.

Well done to everyone who has completed it, and good luck to those who are still doing it or who wish to undertake it!  It is an eye-opening experience.  We are lucky to live in a developed country where food is readily accessible, and not only that, we can choose from a vast variety.

http://www.livebelowtheline.org.uk

www.twitter.com/lbluk

from google

Also, whilst I am writing about poverty, please please please go and look at www.freerice.com.  This is one of the best websites I have ever used.  You get to increase your vocabulary / knowledge of Chemistry / Art / other, whilst donating 10 grains of rice through the World Hunger Programme.  It is free to use, easy to use and fun, AND such a worthwhile cause.  This is a cause fairly dear to my heart.  Firstly, my parents revolve their diet around rice; it's a Chinese thing.  I have heard firsthand from them what poverty is truly like, and I have been playing on this site intermittently, although more often of recent, for a few years now.  Getting 20 answers right allows the WHP to donate 200 grains of rice.

Together we can take small steps towards ending poverty :)

Carol xxx

it's like looking for a treasure when it's already mine

So with great enthusiasm, I watched the Royal Wedding; had made plans to watch it at a friend's house but it fell through and so just ended up watching it at my boyfriend's house, streaming it on the BBC and/or youtube.  Me and a couple of other friends who have twitter were tweeting during the ceremony - there were so many people doing a live commentary!  The hashtag, if you care, is #royalwedding .  It goes without saying that I loved it immensely!!!

Been sort of... down recently for many reasons.  I guess it's the study getting to me.  I wish I could cope better, and that I believed in my (small) ability better.  It's just.. too many things and I sort of withdraw and shut down if I feel down about too many things.  It lead to me writing the post which I published just before this one, then removed it.  The first paragraph is the same though.

Met one of my friends from school last week - he had an interview with Accenture, who gave me free stuff once for winning a prize (long story), so I approve.  Basically, I have had conflicting views about viewing our friendship in the past and have acted with my heart rather than my head on multiple occasions.  Suffice to say that I am now glad that we are mature adults who have coffee together in Paul. (I love Paul.  I always say "I love Paul" when we talk about that store - guaranteed).  Hopefully it will not be several years before we speak again!

This Live Below the Line thing is incredibly hard.  I have relied on donated food A LOT and not included it in my budget.  I realise this is not within the rules, but I intend to do the five days.  Just not all at once, maybe one day at a time.  The reason for this is because of social occasion, and my circumstance.  I am a small BBC/V girl, with a fast metabolism.  It gets a bit scary sometimes and almost GP appointment worthy.  My boyfriend and I were talking about fasting - he can fast for 4 days without food (just water and some disgusting olive oil/liquid thing mix) and I can fast for 22 hours.  I tried it once during BSc revision time, just for fun really.  I went 22 hours without food, and suffered psychosomatic symptoms of blacking out and fuzzy vision.  I know I know they are psychosomatic symptoms and it's because I can't handle the idea of not eating food for a long period of time.  Apparently, the way I view hunger is basically out of proportion to my situation and if I calm down, then I can go longer without food.  I wouldn't like to, and I thank my lucky stars every single day that my parents came to this country.  (The story of how they ended up here is quite long too, and not for public reading).  I thank my lucky stars every day that I live in a society where I can live with freedom and have the choice to eat a varied diet.  I am incredibly thankful - a massive sequence of events had to happen so that I can live this way (not in a societal way, in my parents' timeline).

Anyway, I am rambling.  I can't go without food for more than 24 hours.  Believe me, I have tried.  More than once.  It's desperately unhealthy, but I like (weirdly) to set myself challenges to push myself.  The not eating thing was one of them.  The weird eating habits was one of them.  The decision to stay up for over 30 hours on three separate occasions in 10 days was my choice - I wanted to prove to myself that I could pull an "all nighter" and not suffer badly.

So I am doing the Live Below the Line challenge, but slowly and my own way.  But I am doing it!!  I have spoken to some people about it actually and I think they're just unwilling to break out of their comfort zone and think about the cost of food they eat.

I anchor values quite a lot - this is obviously evident when you ask me how much I spend on food, or what is a "good salary" and a "bad salary", and what is an "expensive house".  My ideas about money and price are distorted because of my anchoring - it is what I have known and what I have seen.  But it has shown me what money can do to people, and just how important it can be, and how unimportant it can be.  A lot of my attitudes towards buying things has come from my upbringing - I do not regret it at all and I have never been able to properly explain what I mean by my attitudes towards money.  As with most of my procedural memory, I cannot explain what I mean......

Poverty is the worst form of violence - Gandhi

How do you feel about the way you live your life now?  Do you feel like you have enough food and enough water?  There is a significant proportion of the world's population who survive on such a small amount a day (£1 a day for food and drink).  The £1 amount is taken to be 'the line', thus 1.4 billion people are living below the line.  How can we, in the developed world, truly appreciate what this means for them?  It is only circumstance that separates us.  We should count ourselves as very lucky, in that we live like we do, and we have the means to by whatever food we like, and can choose what to have for a meal.  A lot of people I have spoken to about this challenge fall into several categories:

1) they are indifferent to the cause and the whole point behind the challenge

2) they are not interested and make up some excuse about why they cannot undertake this challenge

3) they are interested but make up some excuse about why they cannot undertake this challenge

4) they are properly interested

Challenge - eat/drink for less than £1 for 5 days

It is only for 5 days.  I can voluntarily choose to live this way for 5 days.  Over one billion people do not even have the choice to live like this: they have to.

You might say... well, what is this going to achieve?  It will raise awareness of the meaning of poverty - you cannot know what it is like until you try it, and even then, it will only hold a fraction of the truth because we will still be able to travel freely and have a safe place to go to during the day or night.

Can you break out of your comfort zone for 5 days to do this LBLuk challenge with me?

Live Below the Line is an incredible new awareness and fundraising campaign that's making a huge difference in the fight against extreme poverty.

Quite simply, it allows thousands of people in the Global North to better understand the daily challenges faced by those trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty, and builds a movement of passionate people willing and able to make a meaningful difference for those who need it most.

The week of Live Below the Line is a week like no other. From 2-6 May, thousands of people across the UK will spend just £1 each day on food, and use their daily experiences to bring extreme poverty to the centre of conversation in homes and workplaces. We'll all be challenged, we'll struggle without caffeine, and have a faint feeling of being not quite full for the whole week. We'll pool money with housemates, colleagues or family to make that one pound stretch just a little further...

We'll do all of this because whilst we choose to struggle to Live Below the Line for one week, there are 1.4 billion people who have no choice other than to do it every day.

Think about that figure - 1.4 BILLION - that's over 20 times the population of the UK - living every day to live in the most abject poverty.

"It's not that bad," you might say - "£1 goes a lot further in developing countries". - Unfortunately not. The £1 figure represents the amount someone living in extreme poverty in the UK would have to live on.

And for people who live in extreme poverty that £1 has to cover far more than food and drink - we're talking everything - health, housing, transport, food, education... It's impossible to imagine, but it's the incomprehensible reality for an incredible number of people.

Also, please play on www.freerice.com  By getting answers correct (AND learning new words), we can help to donate rice through the World Food Programme.  10 grains might not mean much to you, but it can go a long way to help those who need it most.  Even getting 20 answers is 200 grains of rice.  If 1,000 people did this per day, in a year this would become 73,000,000.  And I am fairly certain you will agree that this is A LOT.

Carol xxx

livebelowtheline.org.uk (quote from this site)
twitter.com/LBLuk
facebook.com/LBLuk (images from this site)
youtube.com/user/livebelowthelineuk

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






livebelowtheline.org.uk
twitter.com/LBLuk
facebook.com/LBLuk (images from this site)
youtube.com/user/livebelowthelineuk