Living Below the Line

This week I've been taking the Below the Line challenge, spending only £1 a day on food for five days. Live Below the Line is a campaign aimed at challenging the UK's response to poverty. Extreme poverty is defined by the World Bank as having the equivalent spending power of $1.25 USD a day. Whilst I've been hungry at times this week, and living off a very basic diet, I know this is nothing compared to the desperate reality faced daily by 1.3 billion people. My £1 has to cover food costs, but not everything else. I know that there is a roof over my head, in a warm house, I've access to clean water, if I were to get sick I could go to the doctor. My life is full of opportunity. Yet this is exactly 1.3 billion people are denied daily.

When I think of extreme poverty I think of this image. I took it in 2010 in Cité Soleil, a desperately poor area of Port-au-Prince in Haiti. The children are standing in front of mudcakes, a cottage industry which exists in Cité Soleil, producing 'cakes' made of mud and salt then dried in the sun. The very fact that there is widespread production of these across the slum, points to the utter desperation that exists throughout a community where people are prepared to eat mud just to have something in their belly. When I visited this slum it was with The Good Samaritan Foundation, a Haitian NGO that was providing feeding programmes across schools in the slum. Pastor Vincent from The Good Samaritan Foundation believed that education was the key to changing children's like these futures, and giving them a meal that day meant they could achieve that goal.

I know this week I've been challenged  to do more about global hunger, and have been exited to engage in the Enough Food If campaign. The Enough Food For Everyone If campaign has been formed buy a number of NGOs in the UK to hold the G8, hosted this year in the UK, to account on tackling global hunger. There are four big issues it is seeking to address:

Aid
Enough Food For Everyone IF we give enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help the poorest families feed themselves.

Tax
Enough Food For Everyone IF governments stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries.

Land
Enough Food For Everyone IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land and grow crops to feed people, not fuel cars.

Transparency
Enough Food For Everyone IF governments and big companies are honest and open about their actions that stop people getting enough food.

I believe we all have a role to play in ending global hunger, and eradicating extreme poverty. I hope I can play my part. Find out how you can engage here: www.enoughfoodif.org