Foundations Newsletter

Food.  Eat to Live or Live to Eat?  1.4 billion people around the world do not have the luxury of that choice, according to the Global Poverty Project.  Their only option is to live on a daily allowance of $1.50 or less.

To raise awareness of this global situation, the ‘Live Below the Line’ campaign was launched in 2010, inviting people to try to live on $1.50 a day.  The idea was to feel what these 1.4 billion people go through on a daily basis.  Since it was launched 50,000 challengers from 70 countries have taken up the challenge.

Recently, 5 members of the DMC Foundations team joined the global ‘Below the Line’ community to try to live on six dirhams a day.  This allowance had to cover all their food and drink.  Very quickly the team realized how difficult it was to do this and how much they took for granted.

DMC’s Below The Line Team

Although the experience started out as a mere 5-day challenge, it resulted in far more than this.  By setting up a daily blog, including menu entries, numerous conversations were sparked about global poverty.  This resource also extended into the classroom through reading lessons, raising awareness of this global situation.

To walk in someone else’s shoes for a week was an eye-opener, but ultimately very humbling.  The 5-day challenge is now over for the team, but for 1.4 billion people their ‘challenge’ continues.

In reality, these 1.4 billion people have to make $1.50 stretch to not only their food and drink, but all their living expenses (education, healthcare, accommodation).  As one of the team, Julie Truong, succinctly put it:  “That amount also has to cover everything else – health, housing, transport, food, education.  So in reality, the amount just for food would have to be like $0.25 a day or something?!  That would basically mean one small cheap apple for the entire day.”

Caroline Jenns