injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Education is the most powerful method which you can use to change the world.

~ Nelson Mandela

In a weird way I miss living on $1.25 US a day. Not because I miss being hungry (in fact I have been eating non stop), but because I miss thinking about poverty and knowing that I have to make change, ALL the time. Being hungry was a constant reminder that something is wrong in this world and that I HAVE to do something to make change.

I have been feeling a lot of helplessness lately. Just because there is so much MORE I could be doing with my time than learning about finance or studying for exams. I totally understand how important it is, but really, I just want to be out doing something meaningful. In fact ever since the roadtrip (Make Poverty History Roadtrip 2010), I have felt like all I should be doing is going out and getting signatures or organizing accommodation or dealing with itinerary issues or street campaigning or participating in a flash mob or door knocking - something meaningful and worthwhile.

Until now, post-RT depression has not hit me. But I REALLY really miss the roadtrip. I miss all the passion and enthusiasm, the chanting, the willingness to make change, the cause that has bonded all us young people together to want to do something about the injustice that is occurring. I miss heated discussions about poverty in bus trips, I miss educating ourselves on the asks, I miss waking up to a day full of action and going to sleep buzzing, knowing how worthwhile my day was. I miss arriving in Canberra and uniting with 1000 other young people who are there for the same reason. I miss people knowing and wanting to make change and understanding that our life is not just about money or university or a career - that there is something so much bigger than us.

Every single person on the roadtrip was amazing. And because of us, the Act toEnd Poverty has been passed in the House of Reps!! (sign at www.acttoendpoverty.com.au)

Before, during and after the MPH Roadtrip, we were asking everyone to sign this petition; a petition that was a call to the Australian Parliament to pass the following motion:

We reaffirm our pledge, first made in the year 2000, that we will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanising conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion are currently subjected.

With only five years until the international goals to address extreme poverty are due, there is now an urgent need to recommit ourselves to this task. We can and will do our fair share to achieve all the Millennium Development Goals. Our actions of the last twenty years have already succeeded in halving rates of extreme poverty. Within a generation we can and will make poverty history.

This act had a goal of 40,000 signatures. We achieved over 50,000 by the end of the week, and have now increased this goal to 100,000 signatures.

Our life-changing roadtrip was personally thanked in Australian Parliament on the 31st of May 2010 at 9.15pm. I am so proud and so privileged to have been part of something so amazing and that has made such an enormous impact on Australia and the world.

All three politicians that spoke, spoke with such passion and so positively of this movement - they even ran out of time speaking. Greg Hunt, MP for Flinders and Opposition Minister for climate change spoke incredibly about how, although there may be minor disputes on aid, we need to come together as a country to battle poverty. His speech really struck me, especially:

We will have our points of disagreement over specific programs or quantum or effectiveness, but the direction, the heft, the weight, of history is about Australia as a country contributing to the achievement and improvement of the Millennium Development Goals. These are profound human tasks and responsibilities.

..... We are amongst the very fortunate few in all of history. So many people for so much time have lived in such abject poverty that to live as we do, with all the accoutrements of the modern age—whether it is lighting, refrigeration, hygiene or any of these things—means it is our task, our duty, our responsibility, to do all that we can to provide a way forward for others.

The video of this session can be viewed at: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6018/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=3842

This roadtrip has changed me as a person. It has allowed me to gain confidence in myself like never before - I cannot believe all that we have achieved, and yet we are so young. I believe in myself more than I did before, all thanks to the amazing, encouraging and passionate ambassadors on the trip.

Every single person that made this trip possible, on any level, deserves to be thanked - I admire you! We are all part of something bigger, something meaningful. We really are young people working together to end global poverty. Our group of young, passionate and mobile ambassadors has illustrated to the government that we will not let this issue die. We have educated people all around Australia, we have sparked discussion and debate, we have created an amazing ripple effect all over the country. We are fighting for justice. We are helping to create a change that is going down in the history of Australia. We are helping to make history in the world, in something so important and so much bigger than we could ever imagine. We are helping to make poverty history.

We really are.

And the fact that we now believe that our generation can and will eradicate extreme poverty is the most amazing feeling.

So post-roadtrip I jumped straight into organizing Live Below the Line (new campaign name for dollar25) and so didn't stop for a break. So I think that is why it is hitting me now.

Considering differing next semester/year to do something with myself. Something worthwhile. Thoughts?

Anyway, get involved with our campaign, Live Below The Line, and you too can experience living on $1.25 US ($2 AUD) a day. It is a really humbling experience. www.livebelowtheline.com/oaktree

By living on $2 a day, you'll help Australians understand the obstacles faced by those currently living in extreme poverty. Take the challenge from 2nd-6th August and raise money for life changing education programs.

All the money from the Oaktree Foundation will go towards opening a school in a village in remote Papua New Guinea that has not had education for fifteen years.

Remember that we can make change.

Our actions can change the world, and are changing the world.

As one person you can make a difference, but as a group, you can change the world.

~ Bilaal Rajan, a 13 year old boy that has raised more than five million dollars and started campaigning at four years old (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/10205486.stm)