Living Below The Line (£1/day for 5 days)

This May (31st May - 4th June as I'm staring this a bit late) I'm going to be living below the line: for 5 days I'll be surviving off just £1 a day for all of my food and drink. The rule is that everything has a price, so items I already own/am given for free also count towards the £1. Aside from rent, bills, etc I will try not to spend any money on anything else, in a still imperfect simulation of what it would be to survive on such a tiny amount of money. It seems so much tougher but cooler to do this instead of going out and getting drunk after my final exams are over.

It's definitely going to be hard, but it's an awesome way for me to raise money and awareness for the 1.4 billion people who have to live like this every day - and who have to make £1 cover a lot more than just food.

I chose to raise money for Positive Women, a charity set up to empower women and children in Africa, starting with Swaziland. Their work focuses on supporting women to change their own lives and circumstances. They support them and their families in projects that will help alleviate poverty and make significant social change. Through education of their children and HIV/Aids orphans, through women-led income generation projects and through legal work, Positive Women is helping the women of Swaziland and their families secure their basic needs, and empower them to secure a different, better future. Positive Women has reached some of the poorest communities in Swaziland and has already had significant and far-reaching impact on the lives of thousands of women and children.

Please donate to support me, and critical anti-poverty initiatives. Also please consider joining up and doing it yourself; it's a worthwhile initiative.


http://my.livebelowtheline.co.uk/martalucysummer

I will blog about the experience after I'm done here on Women, Fire & Dangerous Things. I'll also write a bit more about Positive Women, their mission and activities in Swaziland, where they empower women to change their lives and the lives of their communities. Their focus is in particular on HIV positive women and children, on HIV/AIDS prevention education and also on removing the stigma associated with the virus. 

Here's also what Positive Women are saying specifically about the Live Below The Line campaign: “Live Below the Line highlights this generation’s biggest challenge – to help 1.4 billion people out of absolute poverty. Positive Women has seen what small amounts of money and support can do, long term, for these communities. It’s vital, particularly now, that we give our support and help to those most in need. That’s why we’re taking the challenge”. (Read more: http://positivewomen.org/?page_id=783)


This should be a good opportunity to get out of the final year at uni + a load of personal issues lethargy that has led me to think about posting but never actually posting in the last few months. Regular service should resume very soon; apologies.