day 27./ i'd like 2 and a half days of food with fries thanks. oh. i mean a cheeseburger meal.

This week, 1,500 Australians are living on $2 a day for all food expenses to raise money and awareness for the 1.4 billion people that live in extreme poverty. It is an amazing initiative and we have raised over $250,000 already. To find out more info, go to the Live Below the Line website, where you can learn about the issues and sign up yourself.

Alternatively, you can sponsor my efforts by credit card, direct debit or cash. Email me for details at p.madan@theoaktree.org.

So my last post was kind of depressing and I am ashamed of myself for it very much. Sure, I am only human. Sure, I am only 18, have been brought up in a wealthy household, went to a private school and enjoy designer brands, and am purposely putting myself on less than $2 a day and it is hard. Sure, I should be suffering and be allowed to complain.

But what really gets me is that 1.4 billion people (thats 60 times Australia's population) do this every single day, and not just for food.

So my experience is only a tiny, minuscule snapshot of what reality is like for one fifths of the worlds population. So really, I should suck it up and deal with it.

But, this experience has taught me that extreme poverty is a barely liveable condition that effects one so, so much. It is an awful way of living and should not even be allowed to exist on our planet. The fact that it does makes me sick. The fact that we have the resources to fix this, makes it worse. And the fact that so many people are so ignorant to these issues and can live and not do anything about it, just makes me so angry and yet so, so sad.

27 days in and I am always tired. I never have energy or I swing into a mood of hyper activeness. I can't concentrate at uni. I can't do anything that requires too much strength. I can definitely not work to my best ability or communicate properly either (my friends would agree). It has come to a point where I have realized that if one wanted to live properly, be educated and work and enjoy proper relationships and just even enjoy a day of life, they would not be able to do it on this much money, or less. It is not just poverty, it is extreme poverty. And it is awful.

We are so lucky, living in the world we do, the way we do. Yet it is so, so by chance that we were bought into this world, and not into a family who fights for food everyday, or who cannot afford to send their children to school. We take it so for granted that we get up in a comfortable bed in the morning, fill our stomachs up with food and then go to work, or uni or school. And yet what do we do? We complain. We complain we don't have the new iphone. We complain we haven't eaten since lunch. We complain we don't have enough time. Or too much homework. Or that we hate the city.

Well, why not look at the positives? Why not turn it around and say, hey, sure I don't have enough time, but I LOVE what I am doing, so who cares? Or, hey, I have heaps of homework, but look at where it will get me? Or hey, the city may suck, but it is also pretty beautiful, no?

Or why not do a good deed? Or something nice for someone else?

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

~ Dalai Lama

I gave directions to an old man the other day, and a guy who had been looking came past and said, "it's nice doing something nice, isn't it?"

Good deeds are so underrated. And sure, we may have to put ourselves second, but what is wrong with that? There is so much more than this world that we live in, there is so much beyond US, beyond our own selves, so much we can learn and that we can do. And there is just an enormous amount of impact we can have on other people's lives.

In a scrubs episode I was watching, it showed how people had done good deeds for others, for example, Turk had given up the only night he had to himself, to spend time with his best friend JD. And he asked himself, when he had so much work leftover that he needed to do and was yelled at by his boss, was it worth it?

The same thing happened to me. I had had 3 exams in a row and was looking forward to finishing early at work, because I was dead tired, hungry and stressed, but when I saw that my friend, who was closing and finishing really late had an exam the next day, I offered to close for her. I went home after midnight. And that's when you ask yourself, was it worth it?

Well yes. For Turk it was worth it because he saw his friend JD happier than he had been in ages. For me it was worth it because when I went to my friends singing exam the next day and heard her perform, I knew that I had made the right choice.

Because in order to make the world a better place and rewind all the cruelty, unfairness and sadness that humans have brought about in the world, we must start with ourselves. We must help others, and take a little less and give a little more, because this will not only make others happier, but it will also improve our own personal well being and happiness.

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

~ Buddha

Day 25./ exhausted; about to pass out; kindof over it;

underfed; malnutrition; unsatisfied;

lacking energy; tired; weak;

way, way too many work shifts;

way too many (and too early) uni shifts;

way too much oaktree work;

i can't even pretend this is fun anymore.

Day 15./ halfway there.

Halfway there.

A whole fifteen days to go.

Halfway there.

It feels like it has been, and will be, an eternity.

Halfway there.

Until I can make choices again.

Halfway there.

And I am free, free to make choices and free to eat whatever I please, whenever I please.

Halfway there.

Yet I feel so bad, as noone living in poverty is ever 'halfway there'.

Halfway there.

And I have already learnt so much and gained so much knowledge.

Halfway there.

And I have a greater understanding of the struggle of poverty.

Halfway there.

And I now know that never, ever in my life will I ignore the issue of extreme poverty.

Halfway there.

And I am now sure that this is my passion and I will never give up fighting until extreme poverty is eradicated.

Halfway there.

And all my friends are now aware of my struggle, and more aware of the struggle of extreme poverty.

Halfway there.

I have educated so many people and will continue to.

Halfway there.

And I am sure we can eradicate extreme poverty within our lifetime.

(almost) Halfway there.

To my aim of $500.

Halfway there.

To 10 disadvantaged kids being sent to school for 6 months in Cambodia.

Halfway there.

To 2.5 teachers being educated and trained for 1 year.

Halfway there.

And you can donate here by credit card, or see me for cash/direct debit donations.

Halfway there.

And your support will help me complete my challenge.

Halfway there.

And I'm almost there.

Day 13./ so much further to go.

At the restaurant I work at, TGI Fridays, there has been many alterations to our menu and the new menu was due to be launched today. Last night, staff were expected to attend a session where we learnt about the new foods - but we also had to taste them.

Although I did not want to at all, it was expected of me to taste the food, as the training at Fridays is vigorous and we must be well informed and equipped with knowledge, to answer any questions or concerns customers have. Hence, I had a few bites of a new burger, some onion rings and fries, a taste of a new sandwich, some pasta and a taste of the new key lime pie. I tried to limit it, however, I was told that I was expected to taste the food, and that they would be disappointed if I did not.

~

Today, with the Victorian manager of LBL, we took a look at a venue that we may be holding our final event at. This was very exciting, but it was a long, tiring day. After much talk of food and sponsorships, I was starving and craving a burger. Steph even offered to buy me one as a celebration present but I couldn't do it. As I caught the bus, the girl sitting next to me was digging into delicious Lord of the Fries fries, with a tasty sauce on top. The smell was driving my crazy, however I did bring my lentils with me. As I started eating my lentils, the lack of choice, the lack of taste and the repetitiveness of my diet hit me hard.

Although I was filling up on lentils, no way at all, did they satisfy me. The rice and lentils tasted like nothing and the texture was bland. I had had the same thing for the past 13 days and it was too much. I couldn't even eat them anymore. All I wanted were the fries, but I was restricted and I couldn't. This is what poverty is. It is not a matter of choice, or a matter of 'wanting' or giving into ones desires. It is a complete, total restriction and wall around the way one lives. It is an inhumane way of living. And I feel bad complaining about my difficulty, as 1.4 billion people do this in much worse conditions than I am living in, every single day. It's not fair.

And still there are 17 days to go. I am not even half way there. I thought I was going okay, but I am not. Every day is difficult and although I am healthier and have lost weight (2 kgs since I started), it is not a way one should live.

However, I will keep battling because what I am experiencing is just a snippet of real poverty and I want to do as much as I possibly can to ensure I am contributing to ending extreme poverty.

You can too.

Sign up to LBL to undertake the challenge for the first week of August.

Sponsor me by credit card here, or email me for direct debit/cash inquiries.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

~Nelson Mandela

Day 12./ hand made, fair trade cookies.

My friend and I made cookies. Affordable, delicious, fair trade chocolate chip cookies.

And we didn't even go by a recipe.

Here is ours:

Ingredients.

- 100g butter (91c)

- 3/4 cup plain flour (22c)

- 1/4 cup brown sugar (3c)

- 2 tbls white sugar (1c)

- 1 egg (53c)

- 1 tsp bi carb soda (6c)

- 1/4 of a block of cadbury chocolate (117c)

Method.

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan forced).

2. Ensure the butter is soft (microwave for 15-30 secs).

3. Add everything except the egg together and knead with hands! Very messy but lots of fun.

4. Crack the egg in a separate bowl and whisk.

5. Add with everything else and mix together until a thick gooey paste is made.

6. With a sharp knife, chop the chocolate into tiny pieces and mix in with everything else.

7. Grease a baking tray and put slightly larger than golf ball sized portions of the mix on it.

8. Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes 9 cookies at 33c each.

Day 11./ 50c of food + $1.50 of cheap wine.

Yes that's right. Day 10 ended with $1.50 of cheap, cheap wine. Fruity Lexia to be specific, and 6.5 whole standard drinks of it.

And that, plus 50c worth of food for the day and not eating as much as usual for the past 10 days resulted in very, very fun times.

The moral of the story...

I am never paying endless amounts of money for alcohol again!

Doing this challenge has really made me realized how much of our purchases are unnecessary and are hurting our bank accounts, our health and the amount of money that we could be using on more meaningful purposes. The food I have been eating has filled me up adequately, and yet I have been living on so, SO much less than what I would normally eat.

And then this excessive purchasing and consumption leads to more wastage and creates more inequality in our world. IT IS SO UNFAIR. People are dying every day because they cannot even afford enough food to keep themselves alive, and here we are, purchasing things we don't need and buying food we are not even hungry enough to eat and then it all ends up in the bin. As I said in an earlier post, $5.2 BILLION of FOOD are wasted EVERY YEAR in AUSTRALIA ALONE - and yet 1.4 billion people are living on less than $2 (AUD) a day.

Below is the bin at TGI Fridays and below that is a meal, that looks like it could be brand new and fresh for someone to eat, but had to be thrown away, into the bin, because someone bought it and wasted it.

It is just ridiculous and disgusting. I hate seeing the bin full of food and I HATE throwing the food away, and even after working there for so, so long, I have not become immune to this hate. This campaign has made me so much more aware of it though.

So, if living off $2 a day is keeping me alive, who cares that people have to live off that everyday?

Shouldn't it be easy then?

Well, no.

Firstly, the food is enough, but quite often, never fulfilling or satisfying. It never nourishes me and it always leaves me still a little hungry.

Secondly, the food is tasteless and monotonous. As wealthy citizens of the world, we love eating big, hearty meals full of flavours and taste. And imagine not being able to taste that. Imagine your favorite food tasting like bland rice.

Thirdly, the restriction and freedom that this has put on my life is immense. I cannot grab a bite to eat at the food court, I cannot buy myself lunch if I have left it at home, I cannot have a quick muffin from the new muffin shop even though they look so DIVINE. Because I can't afford it. And because I am restricted by my budget.

Forthly, it restricts your social life! This sounds awful but it is true. Grabbing a family meal at a restaurant provokes sympathy stares and everyone negotiating with me, "but if we give you food it doesn't count, right?" I can no longer go for a coffee, have a dinner, or anything else involving food - which is a lot!

Fifthly, and most importantly, those living below $2 live for ALL expenses, not just food. I'm talking transport, technology (or lack of), healthcare, schooling, shelter, etc. Imagine your child falling sick, and having to choose between life saving medication, and a weeks worth of food for the family.

So support the cause.

If you love me / support my initiative / like what I am doing, please sponsor me!

You can sponsor me by credit card here, or email me at p.madan@theoaktree.org for direct debit details. OR meet up with me and give me some cash :)

I really need more donations, so if anyone donates in the next 72 hours, I will make them cookies! And I'm not even joking.

All the money will be going towards life changing education systems and reopening schools in rural areas in Cambodia. You can read about that on my sponsor page, here.

PLEASE SUPPORT THE CAUSE and HELP ME OUT :)

Day 7./ oh, hunger.

I spent all day today in the Oaktree office. Waking up at 8am, I had a tea to keep me going, oates at around 11am and lunch at 3pm. Although the food was filling, by the time dinner came around I was starving. We were all going out for dinner (my family, aunt, uncles and grandma who is visiting from India) for my mums birthday, to TGI Fridays of all places! I was going to meet my family there and they were going to bring my soup for me, so that I could eat the soup while they all gorged on delicious, fatty filled foods.

The delicious fatty foods:

One problem. They forgot my dinner.

LUCKILY I work there and my boss gave me 65c (my normal dinner budget) worth of fries with honey mustard (65c worth of food at cost price). This is actually what I had been craving on every shift. Was it worth it? Well yes and no. It tasted great but it wasn't everything I had hoped it would be. Soup would have been nice! Although I am so grateful to my boss for the cheap dinner!

My dinner:

However, it was still so difficult after finishing my fries, just looking at everyones meals and how much I would just love to eat them. The temptation was now staring me right in the face. The lack of freedom. The restriction. It was all so, so real. And even those few hours that we were there was torture.

Imagine a lifetime of it. Imagine a lifetime of restriction. A lifetime of no choice. A lifetime of hunger and uncertainty and vulnerability.

This is all it should be. An imagination. It should not be a reality.

I cannot wait for the day when I talk to my grandchildren about poverty and what it was like and how people lived, and they will exclaim and be unable to comprehend how the world let this sick reality exist.

Let's fix it.

I mean, why wouldn't you?

So 7 days in - how am I feeling?

Hungry.

Longing for taste.

Monotonous.

Healthier.

Skinnier.

Desiring change (in meals), but tolerating the repetition.

Simpler.

Restricted.

I cannot believe there are still 23 days left.

But I am doing it because I care. And because I am unhappy with how lucky I am and I am enjoying constantly thinking about poverty and keeping myself aware of the issue of poverty and that every moment of my life that goes by, I dedicate to ending extreme poverty. Dedicate to making history.

To making poverty history.

Day 6./ i just love forgetting my lunch at home and starving all day.

really. it's just the best. no, seriously! -_-

We had street teams today to promote LBL in Victoria and around the city, and smart Priyani thought to herself in the morning, "it's only 3 hours. I don't want to lug my food around. Let's leave it ALL at home." I did not take into consideration travel time/shopping time/extra time spent at Steph Lee's house. And so I was so, so, SO unbelievably hungry. Tom Nice, from Roadtrip and Melbourne Uni, even started making chips with me (using the several potatoes we bought for $2) but we had to stop.

Preparation for cooking hot chips:

Just ignore the beer is all. That is Stephs fault/ addiction.

*sigh* They would have been sooooo good.

But I went home to my lentils and rice, and I even started looking forward to my bland lunch/dinner, even though I was surrounded by smells and foods that were driving me crazy. I wonder what this says. That maybe one does get used to a certain lifestyle if they are forced to live in it for a long time.

However, regardless of whether they get used to it or not, it is not right, as even though I am getting used to the bland lentils I eat day in and day out, there is no way I would like to live like this forever. Taste and flavour is so apart of our life, and no one should have to miss out on that. The same with choice and freedom. These are basic human rights that everyone should be granted. And a world in which lack of choice and lack of freedom exists is a world that is compromising our ability to live properly. And by "our" I don't mean people just living in poverty - I mean that if there are people in the world that must live in these conditions, everyone is affected and everyone is impoverished. Because we are all one world. We are all the same. And we are all in this life together and must help one another.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Confessions

Look, I know you're probably not a priest, and it is not sunday and I thought I could hide this from you but I don't think I can anymore. I mean everyone has to have their weak moments, right? Mine isn't even that bad.

So it was day 5 yesterday. And I had been considering treating myself every 5 days as a little incentive and also because I have really been struggling at work. I am finding this difficult enough, but being surrounded by delicious food, for upto 12 hours a day was torturous. I couldn't get a break from food. And I know having an 'incentive' and a 'treat' is awful and I feel so guilty, because I have a warm home to go to, electricity, technology, showers, clothes, a comfortable bed, etc. And I am only really delving into one aspect of poverty, yet it has been so so difficult.

And so my supervisor at work had her $2.95 managers meal of chicken tacos and fries, and offered me the leftovers. Now, it was not like I was buying myself a meal. Or like I even had the whole thing. I had a couple of pieces of chicken and a few fries. And that was all. And after working 5 days in a row at a restaurant, living 5 days straight on less than $2 a day, I feel like that small treat was justified.

Yet I feel so guilty.

Which is why I had to confess.

But it was just a moment of weakness.

I will obviously continue this challenge and for the next few days do it diligently. And when it comes to day 10, I will decide.

Until tomorrow, keep making change.

Keep fighting.

Keep believing.

Keep smiling.

Keep hoping.

Keep the faith.

Day 5./ typical day. rinse and repeat. over and over and over and over and over and over and.....

Breakfast: Oats (23c)

90g of coles oates (900g for $1.19) - 12c

10g of sugar - 1c

2 pieces of coles white bread ($1.09 for 22 pieces)- 10c

Lunch: Lentils and rice (58c)

58g of lentils - 15c

100g of basmati rice - 20c

1 clove of garlic - 19c

10g of salt - 4c

Dinner: Sweet potato and spice soup with bread (65c)

1 tsp of oil - 2c

1 brown onion - 29c

3 garlic cloves - 57c

2 tsp of homegrown spices - 5c

2 sweet potatoes - 173c

2 vegetable stock cubes - 44c

1 apple - 17c

This comes to a total of $3.27 which makes 6 serves, meaning each serve is 55c.

Made following a modified version of Richard Flemmings Curried Sweet Potato Soup recipe.

+ 2 pieces of coles white bread ($1.09 for 22 pieces)- 10c

Treats:

Tea with milk (7.5c)

Teabag - 6c

10g Sugar - 1c

20 ml Milk - 0.05c

Mini chocolate bar (31c)

A bag of 15 fairtrade cadbury chocolate pieces - 468c

TOTAL: $1.85

ps. check out this website to see a funny yet sad yet educational way of illustrating world issues (thanks gwyn low for posting the link on fb!)

pps. gwyn is also doing the challenge for a month! make sure to show her support and love because she is amazing!

Day 2./3./4./ i may exchange a limb for a bowl of fries.

Working at a restaurant, four days in a row, for 10 hour double shifts is slightly worse than normal when you are living off $2 a day for food expenses. I don't think I really need to describe how awful it has been.

As sizzling fajita towers rush past me and the smell of chicken and capsicum lingers, every day I become hungrier and miss the taste of so many foods - and it has only been four days. Although I have been hungry, it has also been about experiencing the lack of choice that those living in poverty have to face. The lack of choice of what I get to eat. The fact that if I accidentally forget to take my food to work, I cannot just buy myself a new lunch. And yet at the same time, I am so lucky because I still have that ultimate ability to choose.

As I sat on a booth after working a double shift tonight, my stomach eating itself and me eating everyones ears off with how hungry I am, my manager said I should just cheat. Just to eat something and that she won't tell anyone.

Isn't it amazing (in an awful way) that we can "cheat" our way out of poverty. That I can negotiate my meals to fit in 33c of chocolate. That I can consider rewarding myself every 5 days with some nice tasty food. That if I fall sick, or get malnutrition, or am just too hungry or weak, that I can stop this.

Imagine if we couldn't choose. And imagine if it was not just for food. Imagine one of your kids fell sick, and you have to choose between life saving medication and a weeks worth of food. How are you supposed to make a heart wrenching choice like that? A world where this kind of unfairness is seen should NOT exist. It is not right.

And this leads on to my next point....

wastage.

$5.2 billion of food is wasted every year in Australia alone and still, 1.4 billion people are living on less than $2 a day.

When two thirds of the worlds population have four fifths of the worlds food and four fifths of this food is wasted, meaning sixteen twenty-fifths of the worlds food is wasted, which is over half of all the food in the world that is just thrown away, and 1.4 billion people cannot even afford more than one meal a day, the unfairness of this is just outrageous.

The fact that this is allowed to happen is pathetic and outrageous and stupid and ridiculous. This sort of world should NOT exist.

At my work, I am a host and do a lot of clearing of tables, and almost every single table has wasted food. Some tables have entire meals that have been barely touched and some have had a few bites. And scraping the remains of peoples lunches into the bin makes me so sad, as I know that millions and millions of people would absolutely die to eat out of that one rubbish bin at TGI Fridays.

I just believe that this is so unfair and I wonder how people can live with themselves after leaving a barely touched meal wasted, while children in Bangladesh are eating other peoples apple cores that they have found on the street, just to survive another day. This is actually real, my dad has seen it.

Poverty is not normal and acceptable and natural. It is man made. It needs to be eradicated. It is an unfair condition and ridiculous, as it is not like we don't have the resources to educate and feed every single person in the world. The curing of poverty would improve the entire worlds well being.

I know it can be eradicated. I am working towards eradicating it within my lifetime.

Are you with me?

Day 1./ 12:18am and I'm already starving.

I'm not even joking.

Fame.

I had an interview first thing in the morning, on national radio, about LBTL!

Breakfast.

Tip: BUY OATS!

Work and work and work and work.

I'm talking 11.30am until 10pm.

Lunch.

Surprisingly filling and nutritional.

Others lunches.

Maybe it'd be easier if I didn't work in a restaurant.

What I miss already.

With Fridays honey mustard.

At least five an hour.

Need I say more?

Best quote.

Inspired by an email.

SPONSOR ME!

I only ate 86c worth of food today.

www.everydayhero.com.au/priyani_madan

get back on that horse!

What kind of crazy person would attempt to live below the poverty line, be unable to do it and then try do it AGAIN?

Guilty as charged.

From reading below you may know that a little while ago I attempted to live below the poverty line ($1.25 US = $2.02 AUD) for a month and had to stop due to exams. But now I am doing it again. I am going to live on $2 a day for all my food expenses, for 30 days, starting tomorrow (Thursday, 8th July). I will complete my challenge on the 6th of August and I am doing it properly.

No weekends off. No drinking. Nothing.

From August 2nd to August 6th, the Global Poverty Project and the Oaktree Foundation are inviting Australians to feed themselves on just $2 a day to increase their understanding of the obstacles faced by those currently living in extreme poverty. This is what has inspired me to do it.

BUT REALLY : WHY????

Am I just stupid?

Well yes.

But mostly because I am, and always have been, passionate about ending extreme poverty. I believe it is the most unfair and inhumane thing ever. I believe our generation is the generation to end it. And I believe it is my responsibility, not even a choice, as a lucky citizen of the developed world, to do everything I can to end it.

1.4 billion people live on less than $2 a day.

That's 60 times the population of Australia.

Thats 1.4 billion people that have malnutrition.

That's 1.4 billion people that have to make heart wrenching choices every single day.

That's 1.4 billion people that probably won't experience the amazing taste of our favourite foods.

That's 1.4 billion people that experience a restriction on living their lives properly.

When we have enough resources to feed the world 1.5 times over, you can kind of start to see the unfairness.

I am not doing this challenge to go hungry.

I am doing it to understand what I am fighting for. To understand the lack of choice. The insecurity and living with the fact that if anything happens, I cannot just pay for what I want. That if I am out and I am hungry, I can't just buy some fast food. That if I feel like dessert, I can't just get it because I want it.

And this is only a glimpse. Imagine living on $2 a day for ALL expenses. Imagine your child falling sick and having to choose between a weeks food for your children and healthcare. And imagine not being able to even consider an education due to these issues.

It is just so unfair and ridiculous and horrific.

And that is why I am doing it.

To understand it myself and to raise awareness.

I think this campaign is fantastic because it really breaks the barrier between the two worlds and people around us can empathise and be more willing to donate, because someone close to home is suffering!

So this time I am going to do the challenge a little differently.

Unlike everyone that will be doing the challenge in August, I am not buying all my food at the beginning and living off that. I am following Richard Flemmings lead (www.extremepovertydiet.com) and creating cheap food for myself.

An example:

Breakfast:

Oats, Peanut butter scoop

Lunch:

Lentils, rice

Dinner:

Sweet potato/curry soup

Tomorrows total comes to $1.36 so I may allow myself a 14c banana. Pretty exciting stuff.

Tips:

- Shop at markets (CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP)

- Try to eat 4-5 small meals a day

- Buy oats!!! 1c for my entire breakfast!

So keep reading my updates, sign up yourself (www.livebelowtheline.com) and sponsor me!!! :)

www.everydayhero.com.au/priyani_madan

ps. A really great quote I found....

All people smile in the same language.

~ Anne Frank

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)

Breaking News - dollar25 cut short.

I have several reasons as to why I have had to cheat a little the past few days. And why I stopped dollar25 for Friday. And why I cannot continue to do it for the next two weeks.

Each reason is legitimate, but I still cannot stop feeling like the most awful person alive.

I hope you understand. But I have exam period coming up and I cannot even concentrate in lectures anymore, let alone write an exam. So I will definitely continue this after exams, I just have to stop for now.

I will keep blogging, but I just will be eating as well.

Sorry.

Day 8&9 - act as if what you do makes a difference....

... It does.

~

8.4 million children are denied an education because they are forced to work as slaves.

Children work 16-20 hour days in conditions that are not even fit for bacteria. Their days consist of beatings and working. In some cases, they are forced to work, live, go to the toilet, eat and live their entire lives in a room no bigger than 2metres x 2metres. In other cases, they work with a tennis ball wedged under their chin. If this tennis ball falls, it is an indication they are not working hard enough and they are beaten. They are hunched over for over 16 hours a day like this. Or they are harvesting coco on the Ivory Coast, using dangerous materials and working while they should be in school.

How unfair is that.

I remember going on the End Child Slavery camp a few years ago, and learning about all these different cases and being appalled as every story became worse and worse. And these are children. Children that should be at school, playing sport and enjoying the best days of their life. Instead they have their childhood ripped forcefully away from them and are forced to work so that companies can have cheap labour and sell products to us. The consumerist, capitalist society.

I remember that camp completely changed my life. I stopped eating chocolate and coffee unless it was fairtrade and I still do that. I also completely boycotted Nestle. Nestle is one brand that I absolutely cannot stand. Although they are now making steps to improve, the things they have done, in several developing countries, is so inhumane. They have been sued countless times, and try and maintain that slavery is not against human rights.

In the 2009 Ethical Shopping Guide, it states:

Nestle

The world's largest food company, Nestle proudly proclaims "good food, good life". Nestle has been the target of strong international criticism for its aggressive marketing of infant formula in developing countries with scarce drinking water, leading to infant deaths (despite a 10-year ban by the World Health Organization).

Other Criticisms: As one of the top four global water bottling companies, for contributing to the problem of plastic waste and expropriating water that should remain a shared resource. As one of the world's largest chocolate producers, for contributing to child and forced labour problems in cocoa-growing nations.

I came home after the camp completely emotionally drained. I broke down and couldn't stop thinking: "How can people do this?"

I still wonder this. How can people consciously deny other people of their basic human rights, how can they beat a child because the child cannot cope with working more than even an adult should - how can they treat people like this and continue to do it.

I love the fact that we went on amazing roadtrip. But I wish we didn't have to. I wish the government could recognize this unfairness themselves and willingly want to make a difference.

I wish we didn't have to write songs and try and convince the world to help. Why should we have to? Why can't people just care because that is what is in our basic morals? Why can't people just give back a little bit to the world?

It is only fair that we do. It is just by chance we were born into such a lucky society. We should do what is fair by everyone - even the littlest action can make a huge difference.

Because if we are not part of the solution, then we are definitely part of the cause. To understand and to know what is going on, and to not do anything about it - that is just as bad as causing it. Buy fairtrade, sponsor a child, write a letter to a chocolate company - anything and everything helps.

And who is responsible for this appalling child slavery? Everyone.

~ Mary Harris Jones

Sorry for the long absence from blogging - I have just been super busy.

After going back to work after so long, it has been such a shock. I never really truly experienced the whole "why are people so ignorant to what is going on" feeling after the roadtrip until I went back to work. At uni all my friends are aware of what I have been doing and how I am now doing dollar25, but at work it was like entering a world completely different to mine. People are stressed over the littlest things and it is all about making money, money, money. It was a shock. A huge shock. I couldn't even explain what I have been doing.

dollar25 wise, on wednesday and thursday I have to confess - I cheated a little, tiny bit. In regards to what is happening with this, check above.....

And remember that every action, big or little, on a personal level or on a global level makes a difference.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

~Anne Frank