While at studying at university I often felt strapped for cash. Despite receiving a student loan and doing sporadic shifts at a local restaurant, I struggled to make it to the end of the term in the black. After graduating, my perception of what it meant to be hard up changed completely; working a minimum wage job I regularly questioned that any person could live comfortably on what was clearly not a living wage.
In June 2012 I moved to Guatemala where I enrolled in a Spanish school and volunteered in a local orphanage. This experience led to me once again re-evaluate what it meant to be poor; the average annual income in Guatemala is $150 and many indigenous people earn even less. Poverty in Central America is rife and seeing this first hand cemented my commitment to overcoming global poverty. When I read about Live Below the Line challenge I knew it was something that would have a genuine effect on the people involved and their understanding of poverty.
Live below the line was set up by two Australian campaigners and challenges participants to spend £1 a day on food for five days. £1 is the figure adjusted to relative costs that the US government classifies as the budget of a person living in extreme poverty.
Oxfam is a partner in the campaign and hopes that undertaking the challenge will lead to a better understanding of what it means to live in poverty. There is the option to have your friends and family sponsor you, and you can also donate the money you would have spent on food. For those of us lucky enough to have a warm home to go back to, Live Below the Line will help give us an idea of what life is like for people living in poverty.
Living in Guatemala was in no way all about poverty but it had a massive impact on the way I think of the world's poor. I now reconsider my situation when I feel broke and try to channel my energy into helping overcome the problems that result in poverty. At Oxfam we hope that participating in the challenge will leave people feeling inspired and confident in their ability to help the world's 1.6 billion people living in extreme poverty.