This May I am "Staying Strong Below the Line" as part of the Oaktree Foundation's Live Below the Line campaign. For a month I am living on $2 per day, while continuing my intense workout schedule.
What's all this in aid of?
I am doing this to change a perception around poverty. We often see people in poverty as victims, people to be pitied. The stereotypical image in the media is of a starving child with his ribs poking out after a natural disaster. Again and again we are asked to give money to help save these poor people, and in Australia at least, we often do.
What this image leaves out is the people living in tremendous adversity every day, who are surviving without help or assistance. They do not complain, they do not despair, they just work incredibly hard to make ends meet. I am talking about the mother working 12 hour days in a sweat shop so she can send her kids to school. I am talking about the man working long days ploughing the field by hand, so he can grow enough food to feed his family.
These people don't need our pity, they deserve our respect. They have the drive, they have the work ethic, they have the innovative mind. All they need is an opportunity and a leg up.
So this May I am "Living Strong Below the Line" to get a taste of what it is like to live on $2 per day like 1.4 billion people around the world.
The money I raise through this endeavour will go towards helping young people in Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Cambodia lift themselves out of poverty.
Will you support me in this challenge?
Are you strong enough to live on $2 per day for a paltry 5 days? If not, will you support me with a cash donation to the Oaktree foundation?
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