Imagine spending only $1.25 a day on food.
That’s what the “Live Below the Line Challenge,” a campaign sponsored by the Global Poverty Project USA is urging people to do from May 15 to 20, organizer Jessica Mason told students at a presentation at De Anza College April 21.
A quarter of the world’s population, 1.4 billion people, live on only $1.25 a day, she said – enough for two bowls of rice with 10 cents left over to cover all other living expenses, but not enough to build for the future.
Mason, a Road Scholar for the Challenge, showed a multimedia presentation that was part of the Global Poverty Project’s activation campaign in the U.S. She said she found out about the Global Poverty Project when she was working for a non-governmental organization in Haiti.
She left Haiti during riots following the recent presidential election, when, she said, she became “disenchanted with being an NGO and was looking for a change.”
Mason showed a video about Joel Wiza of Zimbabwe and his struggle to provide for his family on less than $2 a day. Wiza describes in the video how difficult it is to provide the basics for his family and provide for the future.
Despite the dire effects of extreme poverty, the percentage of the world’s population living in extreme poverty has dropped from 52 percent of the world’s population to 25 percent in the last generation, Mason illustrated using a digital model.
Americans should care because we are all connected to another and the effects of disease such as malaria will affect us at home, Mason said, adding that we have the tools to end extreme poverty.
The campaign’s website provides information about the challenge, rules, a survival guidebook and instructions for leaders. It is at http://livebelowtheline.com.
