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Building the momentum for change
 
It's Friday night in Australia, and this year’s official Live Below the Line week is coming to an end.
 
But the challenge isn’t over.
 
Because our challenge is to build the movement for change.
 
And when building a movement, advocates are crucial. 
 
This week Live Below the Line participants caught a glimpse of the complexities of the issue of extreme poverty: we saw how a lack of money, resources and choice can intersect to constrain your everyday life. 
 
For the thousands taking the challenge this week has been tough. Yet we haven’t even come close to experiencing the real challenges of extreme poverty. And we never will; because we can never truly understand what it means to face systemic issues like limited access to health care, poor sanitation infrastructure, corruption and unfair trade. These issues, and more, all play a key role in perpetuating poverty and inequality.
 
They’re complex... but they’re not unchangeable.
 
In the last three decades the world has halved extreme poverty. Together, we are making progress.
 
Thanks to the support of Live Below the Line donors, the Global Poverty Project Australia will be able to invest in expanding crucial education and campaign work in three key areas that contribute to ending extreme poverty: preventing disease, supporting fair trade, and increasing transparency.
 
We know that investment in these areas can change lives. We also know that the conversations and advocacy of our supporters can multiply our impact in these areas. Not only now, but next week, next month and next year. 
 
As we continue to campaign for the end of extreme poverty, your involvement as an advocate will be invaluable. Please continue taking action, and encourage those around you to also stand up for change. 
 
This Tuesday’s announcement - that our major political parties are breaking their promise on foreign aid - demonstrates just how important our work as advocates is.
 
Thanks to everyone who took part. Not only the team who have made the campaign possible, but to the people who took this campaign into their schools, workplaces, family homes and universities; and stood up for change. Your efforts are helping build the movement for change.
 
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If you'd like to get involved with the movement, you can sign up to take the Live Below the Line challenge for the Global Poverty Project in the coming weeks, donate in support of the people taking the challenge (and support our education and campaigning work), or join our advocacy campaign The End of Polio. , 
Posted by Paul Mason - Live Below the Line in Poverty for column GPP - Australia on May 11th 2012, 05:10
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Ripples of hope
 
It’s been a challenging week.
 
For all those living below the line with me, there’s probably one word you’ve heard a little more often than others: ‘Why?’. ‘Why are you eating that?’, ‘Why that amount?’, ‘Why don’t you just eat free food?’...
 
‘Why? ’It’s an important question - and it gets to the heart of what this week is about; of why we do this.
 
Why? Because 1.4 billion people in our world live below the extreme poverty line every day. 
 
Our challenge this week only scratches the surface of the challenges faced by our neighbours who live with an equivalent amount to cover not only their food, but transport, clothing and rent as well... and often in a context where they can’t access basics like running water, schools or free health care.
 
Our challenge reminds us of how important it is to continue standing up for change. We've halved extreme poverty in the last three decades; together we can see an end to this injustice in a generation.
 
This week’s Federal Government announcement - that they will break their promise on foreign aid - serves as a stark reminder of the importance of public education and engagement with the issue of extreme poverty.
 
When you live below the extreme poverty line; you can’t afford for anything to go wrong. 
 
Something as simple as illness can be life-changing - and can pull you, and your family, deeper into a cycle of poverty. That’s why it’s so important to invest in change.
 
Funds raised for the Global Poverty Project during Live Below the Line are helping us continue crucial work we’re doing to remove barriers that keep people in extreme poverty. They will help us expand our work addressing issues like preventable disease; lack of transparency, and unfair trade; and expand our work to inspire and inform through our presentation 1.4 Billion Reasons. (If you'd like to donate, you can do so here).
 
Just as importantly, your efforts this week can start conversations: in your kitchen, with your friends, in your community. And we know that conversations are powerful. When extreme poverty remains an abstract idea - something far away that your friends or family don’t understand, its easy to disconnect. You can make this issue tangible - and provide an easy way to connect people to the issue... you can inspire action.
 
To realise an end to the injustice of extreme poverty; we need social and political will. We need a movement.
 
You are part of this movement. Right now, you’re one of 10,000 Live Below the Line champions around the globe. In Australia, the UK and the US, our conversations, facebook posts, blog and photos are all connecting people to the injustice our generation is faced with, and an opportunity to support change.
 
A famous man once said to those standing against the injustice of Apartheid:
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
 
Right now, you are sending out ripples of hope. 
Posted by Paul Mason - Live Below the Line in Poverty for column Live Below the Line on May 9th 2012, 03:09
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