A number of young students are participating in a project that makes them understand the significance of hunger, frugality in diet and most important of all, raise money for charity.
They accepted the ‘Live Below the Line (LBL) Challenge organised by ‘P3 Foundation,’ a Youth Charity organisation from September 24 to 28, 2012.
But this is a continuous project that aims to assist poorer sections of the populations in needy areas.
About 1.4 billion people throughout the world lived under the poverty line, with less than $2.25 a day to meet their needs.
Established by Australian Charity, ‘The Global Poverty Project’ (GPP), LBL challenges people to live for a week spending only $2.25 a day on food.
Helping India
The sponsorship money will go to the Gairai Goan village in Kalimpong, North East India towards clean drinking water, education, farming and other areas of development.
The Glen Family Foundation has pledged to match dollar for dollar the sponsorship money earned by LBL participants.
Auckland University student Urvashi Singh undertook the Challenge for an entire month, having ‘sampled’ it for a week last week.
“The ability to help people in a village in North East India was a concept that appealed to me as fantastic,” she said.
The Mount Roskill resident spent much of her time organising what to eat and when. “If I did not eat at the right time, I would get tired and it would really start to affect my university work. I ate a lot of porridge, noodles, lentils, cheap fruit and if I was lucky, an occasional egg,” she said.
Student involvement
A number of Indian students have been involved in the project, raising thousands of dollars for this charity project.
A group of four girls, including Sharada, Shiksha, Divya and Shreya, recently raised $2500, while many others are currently undergoing the LBL Challenge.
I undertook the challenge last week with Anagha, Dheeraj and Abhishek.
I will be visiting the projects in India in November or December with a team of P3 Foundation youth. We plan to spend two weeks in the Kalimpong villages, meeting and interacting with the local people and see how the money that we have raised has transformed their lives.
Social work in India
We have planned a number of workshops for children on health, hygiene, waste management and other issues.
We have also organised a village clean-up programme, apart from participating in medical camps, building and painting schools.
The P3 Foundation aims to raise $50,000 this year with the help of the Glen Family Foundation, up from $20, 000 last year.
We encourage everyone to get involved by donating, or Living Below the Line.
Shruthi Vijayakumar is the Chief Executive of P3 Foundation, a charity organisation run by New Zealand youth. They are volunteers and hence are not in paid employment. Shruthi is one of the most talented and genuine youth leaders. A student of the University of Auckland, she was among ten youngsters (and only one from New Zealand) to explore the Amazon Jungle from March 4 to 25, 2012. She was a part of the annual Explorers Programme, 11th in the series of ‘Pan Global Adventure for Environmental Action’ (PANGAEA). Her Report appeared in our May 1, 2012 issue.
Reports on P3 Foundations appear elsewhere in this issue.
