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1.25 Challenge - What am I doing???
 

 So after announcing my decision to live off a dollar-twenty-five I have been pounded with the question - "What are you doing?"

 

 


I regretted announcing this decision here on the blog before I told my beautiful girlfriend, my family and my GPP colleagues. Everyone had a similar response to this:
Don't get me wrong, I love it (and you for it)! But please please don't let yourself get unhealthy! I don't know how you are going to manage to eat in Melbourne for a 1.25 a day...

So to truly answer these questions - "I don't know!"
 
 
But here is an outline of how I plan to do it -
1) I have restricted it to not include my rent or my utilities (maybe later on in the year)
2) $1.25USD = ~$1.5AU
3) I  will do my weekly shopping for ALL food for the week on $10.50 (I am thinking WeetBix, Oats, Cheap Vegetables etc)
4) My transport will be on my bike to and from work
5) I will be starting on Tuesday after the busy weekend of proposal writing for our Monday AusAID submission.
 
Rest is game on...
 
I am still very nervous about doing this. But hey... lets really understand the plight of 1.4bn people.
 
Feeling Inspired? You can read more about our Live Below The Line campaign here. 
Posted by Rich Fleming in Hunger, Poverty for column Action Stories on Sep 6th 2009, 03:53
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Why do something so stupid???
 

As the Australian Manager of the Global Poverty Project, I have seen the presentation 1.4 billion reasons over 50 times now (yes there are many sections that I recite in my sleep). I have made many stupid decisions in my life... however this one might just top it off!  

However every time I see it, I am still astonished by the figure 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty. I visualise the populations of India and China and I cannot believe that the equivilant population size live in extreme poverty - be that 1/5thof the worlds total population.
 
Whilst I can try to comprehend the size of the population living in extreme poverty, I do not think that I really comprehend the severity of extreme poverty.
 
In '1.4 billion reasons' we remove the monetary value of extreme poverty and focus on the 'lack of choice' that it provides the individual. Noting that it can only just buy your basic meal (2 bowls of rice and vegetables), what happens when a family member becomes sick, who pays for you children's school fees??? This is the lack of choice they face.
 
So even though I have lived within poor developing countries - the stupid thing that I am about to do is spend the next month getting by on less than $1.25 (USD) a day.

Feeling Inspired? You can read more about our Live Below The Line campaign here. 
Posted by Rich Fleming in Poverty, Hunger for column Action Stories on Sep 5th 2009, 04:01
Comments: 0 | Post a Comment