Living below the line to fight poverty

Living below the line to fight poverty

This campaign gives insight into the daily challenges faced by people trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty, says Sara Saleh.

University of Sydney staff and students are the leading fundraisers in a campaign to increase awareness of extreme poverty. The group has undertaken to live below the international extreme poverty line next week by feeding themselves with just $2 a day for the anti-poverty campaign Live Below the Line.

The University has now raised more than $16,400, more than any other university in Australia, to raise awareness of the challenges faced by 1.4 billion people all over the world who are trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty.

Sara Saleh, an alumna and research assistant in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, has already raised more than $2300, which ranks her in the top five individual fundraisers.

"This campaign is really important because it gives us an insight into the lack of choice and the daily challenges faced by people trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty," Sara says.

"It's going to be hard to buy much food with just $2 a day and no coffee at all, but I'm up for the challenge, and I'm excited that during the challenge week I'll not only be able to raise awareness, but also raise money to help fight extreme poverty."

Sara is just one of thousands of Australians getting involved with this Australian-born initiative, which launched last year as a joint initiative of the Oaktree Foundation and the Global Poverty Project.

"We launched the campaign for the first time last August, and over 2000 Australians participated, raising more than half a million dollars for life-changing education projects," says campaign co-director Renee Carr.

"This year, we're launching the campaign in the US and UK for the first time, and this number is growing - with almost 10,000 people expected to take part across the continents."