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Live Below the Line is more than just a five-day challenge; it’s a perspective building exercise. The images of extreme poverty are burned into our minds. It always seems to be something that is happening to someone in some place far away. Live Below the Line offers a glimpse into what 1.4 billion people struggle with on a daily basis. I am a graduate student at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs focusing on international development and humanitarian assistance. I will Live Below the Line to gain a more nuanced understanding of the challenges that marginalized populations may face in the global arena.
I recently returned from a field intensive in India, where I worked alongside an NGO leading a grassroots movement to end sex trafficking. Meeting and engaging with the women who are at risk or affected by trafficking allowed me to see the reach of extreme poverty. A woman can become more susceptible to sex trafficking if she needs money for survival and has multiple mouths to feed. These atrocities are part of the much larger problem that extreme poverty can pervade every realm of a society.
Since this will be my first time taking the challenge, I wasn’t sure how I could survive off a $1.50 a day. Growing up in New York, I was lucky enough to have access to education, food and clean water. I believe that through the Live Below the Line challenge, I will be able to develop a connection to extreme poverty. When I heard about the Buddy Matching program, it sounded like a great way to collaborate with someone else who is living below the line. I was paired with Amanda from Brooklyn. Amanda and I coordinate over Skype to plan meals and give each other feedback. The Buddy Matching program has been a great resource for the challenge and helps cultivate new friendships. Developing new relationships has allowed me to see that everyday people are the lifeblood of global movements. Through collective empowerment, the Live Below the Line challenge shows that idealism can turn into action.
Sign up here to Live Below the Line April 29 – May 3, 2013. Register to get a buddy and inspire each other through the Live Below the Line week. If you have questions about the Buddy Matching program please contact us at gpp_usa@globalpovertyproject.com.
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We dare your office to Live Below the Line.
The Live Below the Line: Corporate Challenge Day will be a one-day event where companies across the nation will show support in raising awareness and funding to end extreme poverty. On April 30, 2013 the employees of participating companies will eat and drink on $1.50 a day for one full day, while fundraising and supporting one of our charity partners.
We have 11 different charity partners for whom you can fundraise. By participating in Live Below the Line: Corporate Challenge Day, your company will be featured on various social media platforms. Top fundraising corporate teams will be advertised on GlobalCitizen.org and included on our press-releases. The Live Below the Line campaign team will provide various resources and support for best practice on fundraising and marketing.
Participating in the Live Below the Line challenge provides companies with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate corporate social responsibility and inspire team-building within the office.
How To Sign-Up?
Email gpp_usa@globalpovertyproject.com for instructions!
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Posted by Judith Rowland in Poverty for column Live Below the Line on Mar 12th, 05:24 |
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Everybody wants to feel that their life is worth something, that it is becoming all that they dream it to be. What most people often forget, is that some people just dream to live another day. My name is Alexa Wright, I am a seventeen year old singer and songwriter currently traveling to LA, NYC, London, Paris, Italy & Nashville to make a difference through music. You might have seen me modeling in Vogue Italia & Seventeen magazine and, though those were incredible opportunities, nothing compares to how exited I am to be working with the Global Poverty Project.
I chose to do Live Below the Line mainly to get a better understanding of what living in poverty is truly like. We hear about all the trauma and economic distress going on around the world right now, and are experiencing it to a degree in our own life situations, but the level that these people face is unbelievable. Their faith and and passion for life reminds me why it is so important to believe in causes like Global Poverty Project and Live Below the Line. Every change in the world begins with one person. Don’t wait for that person to come along, BE that person.
I write music to relate to people, and to make a difference. To touch people who have felt alone, hurt, or abused because I have been in those same shoes. To help them realize that it doesn’t matter who you are or what your story is you can be the next president, superstar, or individual that helps end global poverty. There is such a giant world at your fingertips, and there is nothing stopping you from changing it. Live Below the Line is giving me a better understanding of life in extreme poverty. It’s giving me the chance to connect with poverty issues and to have a proximal experience of extreme poverty. Letting me wrap my head around the pain and hunger that so many children, adults, and seniors are going through everyday of their lives with a very dim light at the end of the tunnel, yet still they continue to fight for their rights to live.
The inspiration that lies within the palm of Live Below the Line’s hand is just one cause with the intention to change the world. To create a universe where every single individual can wake up knowing they have a roof over their head, a meal to eat, and a warm place to stay when its cold outside. I am so proud to represent the Global Poverty Project for this Live Below the Line campaign because it’s bringing us one step closer to real freedom. The freedom to dream, the freedom to love, and the freedom to live.
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The UK’s biggest charities today join together to launch the 2013 Live Below the Line campaign – the biggest yet.
On 29th April to 3rd May, thousands of people across the UK will join together again to help tackle extreme poverty by living on just £1 a day for their food and drink, raising awareness and funds in the process.
Live Below the Line is helping to build a movement, a movement of global citizens willing and able to make a meaningful difference to those who need it most - and it’s gathering pace.
In 2012 the Live Below the Line campaign was hugely successful and I want to tell you exactly what we achieved.
Together, we raised over 500K for anti-poverty causes - huge progress towards eradicating extreme poverty. We spoke to thousands of people about the issues, debated solutions with friends, our tweets were seen by millions and our personal stories made the front pages of national and local news.
If you participated or donated last year – thank you. But in 2013, we need you again. We’re not done yet. The 2013 campaign launches today, and it promises to be bigger and better than ever before.
Just imagine what we could do if 10,000 people took the challenge.
We’ve joined forces with some of the country's most talented chefs, TV personalities, politicians, the UK's biggest charities, schools, churches, mosques and synagogues, campaigners and fundraisers – young and old alike to have an even greater impact in 2013.
Join us by taking the Live Below the Line challenge this April. Sign up here.
This year we can make an even bigger difference! |
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Mary and Martha, shown on Friday on BBC1, is a new TV film written by Richard Curtis starring Hilary Swank and Brenda Blethyn. The film tells the story of two women who have little in common apart from one terrible thing - they both lose sons to malaria.
Mary takes her young son from America to Africa promising adventure and fun, until he falls ill with malaria, while British mother Martha loses her son while he is volunteering in Mozambique. Both mothers are inspired by their devastating loses to go on epic journeys to try and make a difference in the world.
Malaria No More UK Special Ambassador Jo Yirrell, is the British mum whose own story was a source of inspiration for the film and the character of Martha. In 2005, Jo tragically lost her 20 year old son Harry to malaria. He returned home from Ghana where he had spent four of the happiest months of his life volunteering in a school. Jo remembers: “He fell in love with the place, so much so that his first words on returning were: “I’m going back”. Harry had really found himself and his purpose in Africa”. However, Harry had come home having unknowingly contracted the deadliest strain of malaria and after ten days fighting for his life, he died.
Jo channelled her grief into helping raise awareness about malaria and the opportunity to make malaria no more a reality in our lifetime. Jo reflects: “No parent should lose their child to a disease that costs £1 to treat. I am honored to have helped inspire Martha and see a lot of myself in her, and just like Martha I got involved with the fight against malaria after my loss. I hope that this important film moves, inspires and engages people across the world about our generation’s momentous opportunity to stop suffering and death from malaria”.
Richard Curtis says: “Jo Yirrell’s story was a direct inspiration for my film – not only her story – but also her amazing reaction to what happened to her, and her son Harry - the way she chose to use her experience and her grief to try to save the lives of other children. Parts of her are in the characters of both Mary and Martha. I’ve also been inspired over the years by the work and determination of Malaria No More UK – I love the directness of the name and the organisation’s utter resolve to spread the message about malaria, how it could be stopped dead in its tracks if enough of us do our bit. Jo is an example to us all of doing just that.”
Jo’s experience illustrates the stark reality behind the fiction of Mary and Martha and, sadly, the impact of malaria is devastating for the people who live in malarial areas. A child dies every minute from malaria and 90% of these deaths are in Africa. But we are alive at a time when making malaria no more can be a reality - make sure you’re part of it.
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