The Finish Line:

                Infuriatingly, my laptop stopped working this week. I was livid. But then I reminded myself how fortunate I am to have access to a computer in the first place.

                The weekend, and the end of the challenge, brought about mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was pleased to be able to use electricity at my volition once again. Conversely, everything seemed so easy once I discarded this obligation.  Here was life, pre-packaged and set onto autopilot mode. When you can flutter through each day with the biggest worry involving slow traffic, it is easy to lose perspective.

                For one thing, it is difficult and debatable to solve what seem to be intractable issues. Student top-fees are one topical example.  The general idea is for those who come from richer backgrounds to subsidise those who come from poorer families. Whether the proposed rise will achieve this is debatable. Moreover, maybe the student protests against the proposed fee rises miss the point: if you attend university, you one of the lucky few anyway and should be grateful for what this opportunity affords.

                Now: Think about that in a broader context.

                Regardless of your prescriptions for improving the world we live in, just remember how fortunate you are not to have to live in poverty. This is what the world would look like if it was reduced to 100 people:

• 50 would be female
• 50 would be male
• 1 would have a college education
• 1 would own a computer
• 1 would be dying of starvation 
• 82 would be able to read and write
• 18 would be illiterate
• 17 would have no clean, safe water to drink
• 75 people would have some supply of food and a place to 
  shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 25 would not 
• 17 would be undernourished
• 15 would be overweight 

Thanks for reading.

I have been able to give my opinion now for a couple of days and I still feel a bit stunted in my approach to what I can say.  I am very glad that the challenge has ended but it has given me a renewed sense of what it means to be voice poor. 

I really hope I never have to experience that as a permanent condition but I am glad I have attempted to even vaguely understand the oppression many people in the world face.  I will of course never understand the social, physical, emotional and mental limitations that affect the voice of a person but it is absolutely essential that we address this and remember that poverty is not only always about money and food. 

Poverty of voice can affect all of that and be very detrimental to a person's right to self development.  For me, at least for now, this is where this form of poverty ends.  I will endeavour in my professional and personal work to continue to advocate for the voices of marginalised persons to be heard both at home and abroad.

Thank you Oxfam and Nicola Sansom for initiate my thinking in this direction.

First day of normality today and the freedom just felt amazing! I'm so glad to be back to being able to eat when I am hungry and what I want. But this challenge has definately taught me a lot about poverty and has further spurred my desire to do more about helping those in need. I hope you have learned as much this week as I have, about appreciating what you have and how poverty isn't just the lack of stuff, but also can be the lack of love, care and companionship. I hope that you have felt challenged by this blog this week - I know I have! - and that you have learned something new or thought about something that maybe you had never considered before. Overall, I hope that you now feel like you can begin to make a difference in the world, even in the smallest of ways, and that no matter how small your action, you can make a big difference to someone's life.

So what does poverty mean to me? (Sorry, I'm a bit camera shy :P)

Poverty is injustice. Poverty is the lack of something that you cannot live your life fully without, whether that be food, water, education or friendship. Poverty is those who can make a difference sitting back and doing nothing. Poverty is selfishness. Poverty is refusing to try and understand someone elses situation. Poverty is no freedom of choice. Poverty is being stuck with no way out. But poverty can be changed and we're seeing it happen in places all over the world today. So poverty to me? It's a challenge to be overcome. Something from which captives can be set free into a life which they deserve.

Thanks for reading :)

So this is the end of the poverty challenge week, and although I did crack once, it's not been the easiest thing I've ever done! Lots of travelling, working and general living have been made so much more difficult without the regular use of hot water, which I definitely didn't realise quite how much we take for granted!

It's the little things that we can all do that can make a difference, raising awareness about poverty and talking to and challenging MPs is a great way to begin bringing about change which can help those living in poverty.

So we've come to the end of the poverty challenge week, thank you for reading and commenting!

I can't pretend that this week has been anything like living in poverty, but it did raise interesting issues about all the small things we can all do to help raise awareness for poverty - I've had more conversations about poverty this week than I think ever before, so that can only be a good thing in terms of raising awareness.

I didn't post yesterday because I was away for the weekend with the Officers' Training Corps - which could be described as the TA for students. I couldn't really do the challenge over there - we were eating from ration packs and I wasn't spending any money. I got back early this afternoon and rolled a tidy 4. So that covered my dinner easy. It got me thinking about how much money I actually need to get by. This week I have got by spending a lot less money than I do normally and I don't feel any worse for it. Infact, I feel good about it. That is something I will take with me from this experience.

This is the final day of the challenge and I thought I would feel really relieved but I'm actually a bit sad. The best thing about this whole task for me was the sense of community I felt. Knowing that there were about 100 people all doing similar things; going through the same difficulties, I felt a strong sense of unity. Equally, all the kind words of support, from people I see everyday to people I haven't seen in ages, have made the whole challenge much more rewarding than I could have imagined.

I would like to end this blog with a quote I came across on the internet:

“Working together, ordinary people can perform extraordinary feats. They can push things that come into their hands a little higher up, a little further on towards the heights of excellence.” 

I would like to set you a challenge: find something you care about, it doesn't have to be about poverty, and do something about it.

Thanks guys,

Chris

Mood?: Excited!! :)

Hungry?: Yes. :(

Tired?: Rather! :/

Inconvienced?: Not for much longer! :)

Last day of the challenge... has been pretty easy actually! Due to cold weather I didn't buy any food today as I needed to get to longton this afternoon after work, meaning I had to use my £1 for the day on petrol. Luckily, I did have one packet of pasta left from the other day which I had for tea :):

These used to be my favourites, honestly, I don't think I'll be eating any more pasta for a while!

I am very much looking forward to not having to choose between food and travel and also having choice with what I eat! However this week has taught me a lot about appreciating what I have and I will definately be trying not to take things for granted and act on my discoveries from this week. I hope that anyone who has been reading this has also found this as eye opening and interesting as I have and I would also hope it has encouraged you to go out a make a difference in whatever way possible!

I am actually too exhausted to write anything else... my last entry will be tomorrow night so I'll make sure it's a good 'un :D

My boyfriend Adam and I decided to go to Birmingham for my friend Katherine's birthday but we had to stop to get Adam some jeans that he could go out in.  I probably do not have to tell you how utterly useless to his shopping experience I was and his reaction was "you know what? Let's not bother, this is completely pointless".  I knew he needed to get some jeans to I had to pause for a moment and to avoid a divorce on the shop floor of T.K Maxx, let him know when I didn't think the trousers were completely hideous.  Divorce didn't happen and we walked away with a nice pair of jeans for him.

We met Katherine in Birmingham centre where she was picking up a few things.  We went to a shop where she tried on what I thought were completely horrendous looking shoes with a mirrored bow on the side that she was very close to buying.  I had to make throwining up noises on the side to make it clear what my thoughts were on them.  I believe that was more a service to the community and to Katherine's feet than a gratuitous opinion giving frenzy.

The day ended at The Glee Club, a comedy club in the centre of Birmingham and it was all going quite well because the very first act was not that funny but as the evening went on, the comedy got so good I was nearly crying with laughter. 

I had failed yet again.

Sorry I didn't write last night, I wasn't home until rather late!

Mood?: Really good actually, work was lot's of fun as was the bonfire/after party! :)

Hungry?: YES! :(

Tired?: Pretty exhausted by the time I got home, I thought my legs would collaspe underneath me! :(

Inconvienced?: You know what I'm going to say :P

Yesterday started off really well actually, after dreading getting up and having another (6th this week!) walk into town I actually enjoyed quite a leisurely stroll in the morning sunshine! I'm starting to think I'll walk rather than get the bus more often, it's really quite fun when the whether is nice :) So I took some pictures on my walk to share with you:

How pretty does the Ribble look?! Very unusual...!

I also saved my money for the evening, as after Longton Fireworks, we went back to my friend Aimee's house for a kind of after party for soup and cake. Although Nic (her mum) wouldn't accept the money off me, I will donate my 90p (remember, I went over by accident yesterday!) to OXFAM today at the bookshop :) I also saved my pasta that I bought the other day for today, since I'm not going to get chance to buy anything else before I toodle off to the bookshop.

Here's a picture of the lovely soup I had yesterday:

Yummyyyyyyyy :D

It was also nice to feel included again, since everyone else was eating the same thing as me. It's strange really, but when you have to make a seperate meal to everyone else or just have to sit and watch others eat because you can't afford that meal it makes you feel somewhat excluded and like a little bit of an outsider. You want to be enjoying what everyone else has and sharing in the experience with them. I don't know whether that is just a personal thing or not, but I would imagine that it is a feeling shared amoungst many of the poorest in the world. Although I cannot possibly imagine the feelings they must experience in comparison to mine, I have a strong sense that the longing to belong is something that every human experiences in many different ways.

Thanks for reading, todays update will be with you later!

I've missed a couple of days blogging, and for that I must apologise. With a funeral to go to, much travelling to be done and work to go to, I have been pretty busy, but still managing to keep my mind on the challenge this week - with 1 lapse in the challenge (yes i did use (luke) warm water to shower and shave once, but I allowed myself this as it was the morning of the funeral).

But i actually want to talk about something different, as I have been working in a bar/restaurant for the last couple of nights. This presented quite a tough challenge - defy the bosses and use cold water to wash everything in?? or work to the capacity of the place i work in? I decided on the latter, for a start I can't change the glass washers to use cold water, and there's also the lovely people from the health and safety department who I don't want to displease too much.

This made me think about the bigger scale uses of warm water that we take for granted and how much difference this could make to people living in poverty without clean warm water. I'm not pretending that places with the charm of canal street in Manchester (if you've been, you'll know what I mean...) would pop up all over the world with access to warm water, but large scale businesses that have to answer to the aforementioned lovely people from the health and safety department would certainly find life far more difficult without it. What affect does this have on the development of small businesses trying to grow in places suffering large scale poverty? Could the cleanliness and hygiene offered by such a luxury really help in this respect? Would this then creat a rolling ball of growth, adding to job creation adding further lifts away from poverty? Hard to know, but one thing is for sure, hot water could seriously help.

As well as campaigning for Oxfam, I work part time as a conference and banqueting catering assistant at a couple of high-end hotels, theatres and restaurants around Manchester. Hence not finding the time to blog until now as weekends are obviously busy times. Whilst at work, I often find myself thinking about the stark inequality in the world. In late September this year, a slum in Delhi was demolished to avoid offending guests of the five-star hotel adjacent.

The indulgences, luxuries and decadence that some people enjoy seems disproportionately over the top when you're aware of what a struggle others have just to survive. The amount companies spend on corporate events would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that a tiny percentage of it could make such a difference elsewhere. This is why I think the Robin Hood Tax is such a good idea. Taxing financial institutions, many of which I have seen clearly have enough spare capital to wine and dine on what I can only assume they file as 'champagne expenses', would make little difference to an individual working for a bank (maybe Prosecco instead of Bollinger tonight). But it could make a huge difference to people living in poverty. It's not just about the money though. Talking to people about my poverty challenge gets mixed feedback. Some are interested and keen to engage in discussion about our unjust world. Others don't seem to care. 

I know I've strayed well off the topic of hot water now, but my experiences this week have been less interesting in terms of the challenge I undertook itself, and more so in relation to other people's reactions to the idea in general. In the words of S Club 7, to Bring It All Back to the original point of this blog: i miss tea, cold showers take all the enjoyment out of washing and thank god watching the x factor repeat will not involve the use of any hot water. Or I'd probably have to give up!

So as the challenge draws to a close and I have yet another bowl of rice and beans I am really thinking about what I have learnt this week. To say this has been one of the hardest things I have ever done would be a bit melodramatic, it is not as if I have starved or been forced to eat tasteless food three times a day, although I have come close to both of these!  I have still eaten, albeit not as well as normal and have bouts of hunger throughout the week but I am still here and well.

The amount of choice I allow myself over my diet has definitely been the biggest eye opener throughout the week and this is something that I will be more aware of post challenge. Although I will not carry on began a strict vegan I think I am going to cut back on the amount of dairy I eat as well as remaining vegetarian. For me it is really important we realise how much pressure we put on the planet by over demanding meat and dairy in our diets so I am going to try and do my bit to cut back.

Tomorrow at my part time job I am going to work for the equivalent wage of a sweatshop worker, in no way is my job as laborious of uncomfortable as working in a sweatshop but I want to further understand how it feels to do a hard days work and not be adequately paid for it. I will donate my wage to Oxfam instead.

                Day five: Empathy

                Whilst playing football last night, a friend broke his collarbone. It was an unfortunate incident which shows how rapidly our fortunes can change.

                With nascent budget cuts waiting to take their toll on individual lives, not just within Britain but also many parts of the wider world, it is worth considering what this means for poverty. Fintan O’Toole, an Irish Commentator, raised numerable interesting points on this subject in a recent interview with the BBC’s Arts & Ideas podcast. He spoke about the need for ‘ethical austerity’. Economic retrenchment is not just about elusive numbers. It is also about our way of life – our philosophy as a country. The interviewer, Philip Dodd, raised a prescient point: those who speak of the need for austerity are more than often those who have never had to live through it.

                Here is a declaration of interest: I have never lived in poverty. The chances are that if you are reading this, you have not either. This is something to celebrate – we should be grateful for the opportunities afforded to us. Equally, however, we should also disdain that many people are not similarly placed.

                Yet it is easy to fall into the same divisive norms: us/them, superior/inferior and so forth. This overlooks one simple fact: We are all human. We have similar dreams, aspirations and ambitions. By no means are they identical, but the very existence of such desires it a staple of humankind.

                And so, it comes down to a simple question: Would you like to live in poverty? Some people like to frame this as a solely ideological point. It is not. You can argue for a more or less egalitarian society within this. The point is that everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living.

                This brings me back to my injured friend. As a waited in the A&E whilst he was being x-rayed, I spoke to the woman sat next to me. She blamed the sweeping cuts facing the NHS on the number of ‘foreigners’ ‘we’ have let in. Politics and economics aside, it was startling how assuredly this comment was made.

There are numerous arguments for and against immigration. This is not the place to discuss them. However, one thing I will maintain is that most people seeking to enter the UK do so because of the opportunities afforded here. That is a compliment. As bad as things may appear at times – but that is life - the UK is a remarkable place to live in. So rather than simply rebuke those ‘foreigners’, it is better to ask why is this happening. The debate can progress from there.

Two more days to go.

Mood?: You don't want to know! :(

Hungry?: Surprisingly, not really! :)

Tired?: Rather! :/

Inconvienced?: Ouioui! :( (but you already knew that one was coming!)

The no travel aspect of my challenge meant that today I walked just over 6 miles extra than I usually would have done and cycled just under 10 miles! However, I've found that it is getting increasingly easier for me - this may be an aspect of my challenge I will try to keep up, I'm becoming a lot more fit than I was! On the other hand though, my poor little legs are rather tired, which I think is partly to do with the lack of food as well as the increased amount of exercise, even if my CALVES OF STEAL are returning for the first time since Lourdes two years ago (sorry - 'in' joke, a few people will get that :P).

On the food side of things, I was back down to one meal again because my squeaky bread ran out that I bought on day one. I managed to last most of the day without losing my concentration too much, I completed all my work on time and I only caught myself daydreaming once or twice - which is good for me on a normal day!! :) However, I did receive a fair few comments today on how pale/ill I looked, even if I didn't feel it! So I made sure to make my tea a whopper of a meal:

And I ate it ALL :D Chicken flavoured noodles (veggie of course!) and TWO garlic naans. Definately a candidate for the best meal of the week, it would even give th onion omelette a run for it's money!

Unfortunately today though, due to a silly maths error I did manage to go over my budget by 10p, however it was on some pasta which I did not eat today as technically I couldn't afford to eat it. So that will be saved for tomorrow and taken off that budget! Good save? - I hope you think so :)

Just one thing I wanted to discuss a little tonight is a theme that seems to be coming up quite a lot with my fellow students when I ask them what poverty means to them. A common answer is that. because we are so far removed from those living in poverty, there is almost a numbness towards it and as we have no genuine connection to the people, we can never truely relate to their situation or how they are feeling (Aimee and Laura's interviews both mention this) and therefore cannot answer the question, as we just do not know what poverty is. An interesting discussion came up in german conversation class about this when I mentioned how if I had accepted all the handouts I'd been offered this week, I would have had every meal and every bus fare paid for, so would have had a normal week with just everything for free. Sally, my teacher, made a good point about how all my friends and family offering me money would happily give it to me because we have a relationship and know one another, where as many of these people (including myself!) would walk past a person in the street begging and completely ignore them without giving them a second thought. Now I am not for one minute saying it is bad thing to give generously to those that you love, but I am suggesting that maybe it is worth considering whether the person in the street selling that copy of the big issue for £1 deserves or needs the money more than you or your friends do - this is going to be a challenge for me too, I am as guilty as th next person!

Just a thought :) Let me know what you think!

Also wanted to add this picture by Banksy, although it is a tad contradictory to what I just said, I love it!

It's bonfire night tonight, went to a fantastic display with some friends but how do you watch fireworks without voicing an opinion?

No WOWs or AHHHHs or OOOOHs, it was hard but inside me I was jumping up and down with excitement. 

At a comedy club tomorrow.............really not a great week to have no opinion.

My fellow bloggers are setting off fireworks all over the North with radio interviews, newspaper articles, MP responses and more...

So why I am feeling so down? This Challenge is cold, tiring and - despite the messages of support I have received - very lonely.

There is food in my fridge but I lack the energy to cook it. There is soap in my bathroom but I can't face using it. It's not the cold that's the problem but the fact that it's not getting warmer anytime soon.

Well, that's quite dramatic of me; I have a lot to be positive about. I'm off on holiday tomorrow, only a few days until I take a hot shower, and the Oxfam Poverty Challenge is becoming a great success. If reading this has inspired you, then take a look at some of the quick and simple actions you can make to tackle poverty.

But there's no avoiding the fact that this is really, really difficult. I am slowly beginning to see the true face of poverty and it's not pretty.

Update: A few hours on and I am ashamed of wallowing in self-pity. Have just been reading about the upcoming Burmese election. I quote Jack Davies in the Guardian:

U Thein Htun is sitting in the teashop's back room [in Moulmein, Burma]. The election will change nothing for the people, he says. "They don't like the government, but they are too worried about having enough food to eat, enough money for their family. The election means nothing. We already know who will win."

This is the real struggle.

Heute, dachte ich dass ich soll ein Blog-Spezial schreiben für alle meine deutsche Freunde :) Also, hier sind zwei DEUTSCH Interviews über 'Was bedeutet Armut für dich?' :)

Viel spaß!

Sally McCann, mein deutscher Lehrerin

Aimee Callander and Laura Higgins, meine Freunde von meiner deutschen Klasse

Und hier sind die Verbindungen (ich weiß nicht, wenn das das richtige Wort ist!) wenn man nicht die Videos sehen kann:

http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/em--x/?action=view&current=IMGP0688.mp4

http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/em--x/?action=view&current=IMGP0689.mp4

(For all you none german speakers, I decided to do two special interviews today with my german teacher and some friends from my german class as a treat for some of my german readers! There will be some english posts later on, I promise! :P)

As you can see I am feeling a lot more upbeat today, simply because Edinburgh is soooo Vegan friendly!!! I woke up thinking about what I could possibly eat as my stomach roared at me and I was feeling quite pessimistic. However a stroll into Edinburgh centre took me to a great little Eco friendly café adorned with Elephants where I had a hearty meal, maybe I will have to move to Edinburgh?  

Despite my upbeat tone, and who wouldn’t be in this lovely city, I did have a really interesting and thought provoking chat with a guy who was street fundraising for Shelter. As he reeled off the statistics of how many people were homeless in the UK, I thought about the challenge and how it is important to remember that so many people live in poverty right on our doorstep. Oxfam does some really valuable work in the UK, to see what have a look at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/issues/poverty-in-the-uk.html

Off to see the fireworks I go, minus a toffee apple as I’m pretty sure that toffee is made with some kind of dairy product so even that is out of the question now!

Before you ask - No that isn't me its Chris Evans.

Today I rolled a 1 again which is a bit annoying. I have rolled two 1s now and no 6s. That brings my average down to £2.60 a day. My bike is really starting to annoy me. Since the 2nd puncture I haven't fixed it I just keep repumping it up every couple of miles. And the wheel has started to run against the frame so it's like riding everywhere with the brakes on. I'm just generally tired and undernourished. But at least I've been able to sleep in my bed - unlike Harriet Gendall who, along with me, did an interview on BBC Radio Merseyside this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00bw2m7/Tony_Snell_in_the_Morning_05_11_2010/ The interview starts at 2.25.45 

Yeh it was good fun. I've never been on the radio before. I was expecting the place to be a hive on frenzied activity but there were only 4 people in the building and it was a relaxed atmosphere. I was absolutely bricking it before I went on but once I was live on air I was alright. It was alright on the night, in the morning.

Check out Harriet's blog - she made an interesting point about freedom of speech, poverty and censorship

For those of you who subscribe to BT Broadband in the Whitefield area like myself: Welcome back. 

Day four:

                I arrived home at 9:30pm last night. Once again, dark and damp, I struggled through my front door and fumbled around for a lighter and candle.

                Here is an important piece of advice: Never shave in the dark.

                To my surprise, this campaign has been covered in the front page of my local newspaper. Other participants in this challenge have similarly been reported by their local press. Never be cynical about how small acts can make a difference. Silence results in stagnation; activism, at the very least, gives rise to the possibility of change.

                Back to the plot: what can you do in darkness? Think.

And so, here is a quote to think about. It is a reminder of the importance about how we look at poverty: it is a human condition and has particular import in this ‘age of austerity’. The quote is from Amartya Sen’s Poverty and Famines:

This ‘head-count measure’ — H for short — has at least two serious drawbacks. First, H takes no account of the extent of the short-fall of incomes of the poor from the ‘poverty line’: a reduction in the incomes of all the poor without affecting the incomes of the rich will leave this head count measure completely unchanged. Second, it is insensitive to the distribution of income among the poor; in particular, no transfer of income from a poor person to one who is richer can increase this head count measure.           

Today has been a tough one!! I handed in my first two pieces of MA coursework and made a voyage up to Edinburgh in the torrential rain, totally unprepared for the fact that every single food outlet on the East Coast isn’t Vegan friendly!! So I survived on a peppermint tea and some crackers and hummus.

For the first time all week I have felt really hungry and lethargic, possibly due to the distinct lack of protein in my diet. In turn this made me think about the West African Food crisis and how hungry the people must feel there. A lot more than me I imagine.

Choice has been severely limited today and really made me think about how much choice I normally have and quite frankly take for granted. I even took to googling ‘Vegan Chocolate’ earlier. Hard times!

Bonfire night tomorrow though and I am pretty sure that I am allowed a toffee apple!! Yippee!!

For more information on the West African Food Crisis and what Oxfam is doing to help have a look at:  http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/emergencies/west-africa-food-crisis2010.html

I think I learnt the importance of women only spaces tonight.  We went out for a drink and dinner and just talked about stuff.  I was still accutely aware of my challenge but felt like I could loosen my tongue a little being in a woman only space.......and the wine did help a little.

I realised I didn't feel quite so exposed or that I was breaking the challenge as I do in a mixed sex setting.  I just found that an interesting point to note.

I finished a blog yesterday and tried to post it but the computer decided to undo all my work and I believe I was justified it giving it a piece of my mind.

What I wrote about yesterday was that I had written my MP Andrew Gwynne expressing my disappointment at our global slow down on halving poverty by 2015. He responded promptly but spoke more about international issues on poverty and the voiceless.  This therefore led me to rethink my angle on this, I think I have to date placed too much emphasis on the voiceless people in far away "brown people" countries and not so much on the voiceless in our nation.

Within represention in the UK there are still vulnerable voices that do not get heard. Women, ethnic minorities, gay people, the elderly, disable people, transgender people. If you are unfortunate enough to have multiple identities, a black disabled gay female over 60yrs old with caring responsibilities, well it's your own fault and your voice should definitely not be heard in the mainstream.  When policy decisions are made or services are designed, it is important to get those marginalised voices heard. A transport system will not affect a single man with no caring responsibilities the same way it affects a woman who has to drop her kids off at nursery, take care of an elderly relative before she goes into work.  All policy implementation must consult appropriately with people it will affect. We cannot make assumptions about those that are "hard to reach", "seldom heard" or have "hidden voices."  If people feel like they deserve a say in something and that say will be listened to, just watch them speak!

My friend Helen read through my blog and wondered along the same lines as me, how different would this be if everyone around me actively force my voice down? Or perhaps took whatever ideas I dared voice and presented it as their own.

Didn't like the thought of that.



So as yet, still not braved the full-on cold shower. I'm a total pansy. Living without normal hygiene practices isn't quite where I thought this challenge would go.

Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation. I can't pretend to even be able to imagine what that's like.

The World Bank estimates that due to the food, fuel and financial crises of the last couple of years, 100 million more people may remain without access to safe water by 2015. Can we let an economic crisis become an excuse for not meeting the Millenium Development Goal promises made to halve the 1990 poverty rate by 2015?

In other news...

BBC apologises for reports claiming Band Aid money was used to buy arms

convinced?

I rolled a 3 today.

Could have been worse. Bit of a glass half full/half empty situation. But it proved enough to get me through the day and cook for my housemates. I cooked a veggie pasta bolognese - and it was quite tasty. Infact I'm quite proud of myself. I've still not got round to fixing the puncture and I am getting bored of walking everywhere in the rain. It's refreshing - in a bad way. Food is running low now. Its cornflakes without milk for breakfast and tea and coffee isnt the same without a dash of milk. Hahaha. (ironic laugh)

No more bread so I skipped lunch because I had to save up for dinner. The average dice score so far is 3. I'm still holding out for a 6. They say fortune favours the brave. So I agreed to go and talk on BBC radio Merseyside tomorrow morning (8.20) about the challenge. So wish me luck!!

After a very long day of travel and work I began thinking my challenge might be a little too easily achievable. Washing myself with cold water and foregoing tea hasn't really been all that testing. Then I got home and realised the massive pile of laundry needed to start getting dented or I'd run out of clothes before the week was done.

Washing clothes with cold water in the sink is long. Getting in from work at 9, I have just spent an hour and a half rinsing and ringing. My fingers are wrinkly, my back aches from leaning over and I've turned the kitchen into a water park. The lack of a speed-drying function on the tap also means there is a bona fide lake emerging underneath the clothes horse in the living room. Washing machines are a godsend. Its ridiculous how much more convenient they are. I truly dont understand how anyone has time to do anything other than laundry without them. I suppose having far fewer clothes to wash in the first place might make some difference.

Increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events caused by global climate change affects people by destroying their homes and livelihoods. Vulnerable communities, who are unprepared for these events, can often be left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Bangladesh is regularly fraught with storms and flooding, and without the means or knowledge to adapt to climate change, some people stand little chance of breaking free from the poverty cycle.  What would you like the government to do about global climate change?

On the plus side, at least all that housework has warmed me up enough to not mind the lack of heating.

Today I had to travel a fair amount, from Herefordshire to Manchester and back again, and after yesterdays fiasco with the wet weather I was hoping for a better day. And in fairness it was much better, can't say I missed hot water too much except for the standard coffee cravings. But having had quite a lot of time to sit and ponder this challenge and what it means for poverty, my thoughts came to how much hot water had affected development, in terms of society and technology. 

Would motorway service stations, or hotels or gyms be so attractive and so heavily used everyday by millions of people if they lacked something like hot water?

Would any of them ever have been developed without the knowledge that free flowing hot water was so readily available?

I'm not sure if I'm getting myself into a chicken and egg situation here, but it is worth pondering the effects of water on development. Would the world's poverty stricken areas be exactly that if water was so readily available? Me thinks not.

I am getting more into this vegan thing now and I will be definitely considering cutting back on the dairy products that I eat after my experience this week. Aside from the screaming cravings for chocolate and cheese I realise that I am eating quite well and that I am very lucky compared to some of the other challengers who are only eating rice and beans all week.

I even managed to have a vegan lunch at a local café today and it was lovely, clearly demonstrating that a vegan diet is doable and enjoyable, although I couldn’t help but stare at my friends Monster cheese sandwich, all that bread and cheese!!!

My challenge has inspired my carnivorous Uncle to cut back on meat, which is great. He proudly proclaimed in an email earlier that he was having a meat free day! How fabulous and exactly what this is challenge is all about, to get people thinking about where their food comes from and what they could live without.

A trip to Edinburgh will be the next challenge, as I head up there tomorrow for the weekend. Hopefully I will be able to get a warming lentil soup or something?!

Haven’t managed to get that hot chocolate off my mind all day though, only 4 more days to go! But then this makes me think that people living in poverty don’t have a time limit on their diet choice and sometimes do not know where their next meal will be coming from. For me, life will never be that difficult and I feel incredibly privileged as a result, so I am going to man up and enjoy my bean stew, lentils and soya for the next few days.

Hey guys, here's an update to let you know how I'm doing! 

Living without transport really shouldn't be the biggest challenge, no where near as big as say, living on a pound a day, buuut surprisingly it is more of a nuisance than it'd seem! Having to wake up earlier, or get everything done earlier to account for the extra time it's going to take can be quite a stress when living in the midst of a busy city. Normally I would give myself say, 30 minutes to get into Uni from my house, this is taking the bus of course. However, to be on the safe side I'm trying to give myself around an hour in advance to make sure I get there on time! 

The exercise side of things is also pretty tiring at times, when I'm in a rush/stress and have things to do, the last thing I want to be doing is power walking! 

However, I am enjoying the challenge and am really starting to appreciate the Magic buses of Manchester and their quick and convenient service! I don't think I'll be complaining about public transport in England for a while after this! 

Nooooo. I rolled a 1 today.

And what a terrible day its been. Without money for public transport I decided it was time to fix that puncture on my bike.

I didn't have any food in the cupboards at home and I was running late so I cycled in without making any food. I got really hungry at lunchtime from all the extra exertion and stupidly blew my 1 pound on a Greggs pie. Silly I know. I should have invested that pound in a loaf of bread. But no I wasted it on a pie.

Now its quater to 4 and its pouring it down outside, its going dark and I just checked my bike and the tyre is flat again. I didn't bring a coat either. No money for the bus - so I'm walking home.

I've got to cook for my whole house tomorrow so for their sake I hope its not another 1.

Today I've learned a valuable lesson from today's mini-disaster: I need to plan ahead for when times get hard.

Oxfam supports governments in making disaster preparedness plans in countries like the Philippines which are vulnerable to climate change: http://www.ipsnews.org/news.asp?idnews=48718

                Day Two:

                I expected last night to be calm and straightforward. After all, I only arrived home at 5:30pm and had plans to leave at 6:30pm in order to meet a friend.

                But as I walked towards my front door the cold, damp and miserable weather soaked my legs and belongings. This would normally not pose an issue, but I ought to have thought twice: I had to remove my shoes in utter darkness before fumbling around for a candle and lighter.

                Once there was light I had to quickly make and eat my evening dinner before changing my clothes and leaving. It seems so simple, but handling a candle which emits as much light as the glove compartment of a car makes the effortless exhausting.

                Remember too: time was of the essence as I needed to meet my friend.

                Within this, there is a point about development. People find ingenious ways of overcoming hardships. That is part of the human spirit. However, the burdens of living in poverty result in inefficiency. This may seem trivial, but in practical terms it can have a significant impact upon how poor people improve their lives. After all, if every task takes doubly long due to external factors, this will consume more personal time and energy.

There will be no big bang in development unless some of these more trivial aspects are overcome. Once again, I am reminded: there is nothing easy about poverty.

Didn't think I'd be pushed to breaking point with this challenge quite so soon! Walking home today got soaked in the rain, arrived cold and wet and the foulness of my mood was probably matched only by the weather itself. I doubt I'm alone in Britain when I say my first reaction was to envisage a long hot bath or shower with a cuppa tea waiting for me when I got out. No such luck today! I got changed and did a few sulky star-jumps to warm up and sat down to rue the weather.

Once my mood had subsided, my thoughts started to head in a different direction. I was sat there cursing the rain that I know all too well, yet maybe 3 or 4 days ago I was reading an article about the Amazon being at it's lowest levels due to prolonged drought in South America, thinking how there must be Brazilian fishermen and farmers, for example, wishing for the regular rainfall we slate so much in this country. Whether or not this particular example is related to climate change is not for me to say, however there is no doubt that situations like this will become more common place as a result of climate change, leading to more people being exposed to poverty. 

With increased frequency of floods in South East Asia, and drought in South America, to state just two examples, how can we mitigate and help people adapt and cope with the effects of global climate change? 

This is getting quite hard now, I find myself watching everything I'm saying and this seems to translate into considering every action I make.  So I find myself trying very hard to stop and think before I use my mouth really- to eat or speak.  I guess it's just a heightened sense of a part of the body that I'm paying attention to. 

My body language also seems to be changing and I seem to dip or bow my head when I feel myself thinking and wanting to voice an opinion.  I also had a discussion/argument with my boyfriend Adam about the Foreign Office travel warnings (details are irrelevant) but I expressed a thought he disagreed with.  Before I knew it, it had become an opinion filled discussion.  As soon as I realised I that I had started expressing opinions I stopped and had to leave the room.  I got a bit annoyed at myself for both breaking my challenge but also at the thought of having to desist mid-argument, an argument that I was totally winning as well (he wouldn't agree).

Anyway, tonight my friend came round to tell us about her engagement, her boyfriend proposed to her last Sunday.  I couldn't help myself and simply had to gush over the ring and over did the opinions about where they should get married, how beautiful the ring is, what style the wedding would be. 

Considerations from today

• I feel like the longer this goes on the more I could embed the lessons and retain a permanent stoop
• This is really hard and I am so lucky to be around people that even listen to me
• I wonder how much more different it would be if everyone around me also felt that I did not deserve an opinion and shut me up every time I tred like in the case of domestic violence victims, not having the vote, having a say in local decision making etc

Having realised that putting off washing wasn't going to be a popular decision for those around me and vanity finally calling, today I decided to wash my hair. With a jug of cold water over the sink. The idea of a full cold shower was a little too off-putting to take the plunge quite yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Whilst leaning ungainly over the sink I was reminded of the time I spent in a small village in Cameroon last year for a rural development NGO where running water was either sporadic or non-existent. Walking through the village in the morning many people would be out by the stream washing themselves, their clothes and children. Whilst this seemed partly like a social event, what struck me was the lack of privacy, something I really take for granted. Privacy, especially for women, can be a serious issue for those living in poverty. Even more so following a natural disaster or during conflict. In situations where many refugees are living in close proximity in camps, incidences of rape and violence often increase. To me, this is extreme poverty. Lacking the means to be anywhere else when you are aware that yourself and family are in an incredibly vulnerable situation with no way out.

Obviously, washing my hair in cold water bears no resemblance to these kind of experiences. But thinking about the non-material differences, such as privacy, highlights how poverty is about far more than being financially poor.

So, is money the only answer? And what can we do to make people in vulnerable situations safer?

A question that has been occupying a disproportionate amount of my brain today is what I can spend my extra 26p on. How much would 26p of oil be? or butter? How much of an 88p jar of pesto can I eat for 26p? so far I have continued to resist temptation, although i've found myself opening the fridge door and staring longingly at the contents. (Urgh the fridge has frozen my peppers again. dratted fridge. not like i could eat them anyway. how much of a bell pepper could i eat for 26p? and so the stream of consciousness continues...)

Guessing what other people are eating has also been preoccupying. Lying in the bath- can I smell chips? or is it biscuit? pie? walking down the street- Is that roast dinner? mmmm. roast dinner...  I've even found myself drooling slightly over bacon and gravy described in the book I'm studying this week.

I have (for once) been experiencing actual hunger pangs before meals, possibly because I'm thinking about food more than usual, and also because i'm eating smaller portions. I've also had a headache all day (another possible use for my 26p is paracetamol). I'm wondering if it's caffine induced. Its odd how many things you consume regularly without even thinking about it, and, now that I'm thinking about food all the time, I've realised that I actually do drink quite a lot of caffinated drinks, when I get up, as a study break, if I'm cold...I've got to say, replacing it with curdly hot squash is not going down particularly well.

So far, this challenge has made me think a lot about how lucky I am. I eat food I like, interesting, colourful food, every day. Sometimes I budget a little tighter than usual, but I always have fresh, healthy, hopefully ethical food. And lots and lots of caffine. I try to always walk to and from uni, rather than using public transport, but I know that I have the option if its raining, and I'm feeling particularly weak and lazy, to get the bus. Now, I am gradually realising how many of these 'simple' things are really luxuries.

The idea of trying to live on a pound a day for the forseeable future makes me shudder, but its a reality that millions upon millions of people actually live, even raising children on their dollar a day wage.

Today I ate-

Breakfast- none.

Snacks- 2 bags of 'maize snacks'- definately not as bad as I expected.

Lunch- a tin of tomato soup and two slices of bread

Dinner- 2 small jacket potatoes with a tin of beans

Also- copious cups of curdly hot squash.

 P.S. I've been really enjoying reading everyone's blogs and seeing how they're getting on and what they're thinking. Wish my thoughts were a little more profound and a little less appetitive!

I NEED MY PHONE!!

Okay, nobody needs their phone, but I really really want it. Yeah, I know plenty of people don't have one, yes I appreciate that it is a non essential gizmo that fifteen years ago you'd have looked like a posh git holding and yes I have been doing this to remind me about the hoards of people without a voice, a home, an income, and education etc. BUT! Someone important might be trying to offer me a life-changing opportunity! I need my phone calender to tell me where I should be and what I should be doing!

Well, I am not a big-shot. Nor am I a celebrity or a politician or anything particularly important. The likelihood of me not having my phone with me causing a catastrophe or leading to me missing out on the best thing to ever happen to me is, frankly, negligible. But that doesn't stop me feeling like it's happening every minute I don't have my BB in hand.

And I also would like to know, what did people do to waste a few minutes before the smartphone came along? Is that what people used real newspapers for? The Guardian wont fit in my pocket! At work I am often on my break on my own and it has has become, well, dull.

Maybe tomorrow will be easier?

Hello all, today is the first day of the 'What does poverty mean to you?' challenge with Oxfam and I chose to live without transportation for a week to appreciate the difficulties that many people go through just to obtain basic human rights like food and water. Not only this, but due to recent bouts of extreme weather conditions such as floods (in Pakistan for example) caused by the increase of green house gases in the climate, many people are left stranded in masses of water, their only option to try and walk miles to escape the disaster. Many of these people don't even have the option of transport and so are forced to walk for as long as it takes to attempt to get to safety. For more information click here.

Day 1: Haven't actually had to use too much transportation today so have managed to start off my challenge on a good day! I've walked to the local shop and walked into the town centre which was actually quite enjoyable as the weather has been pleasant  However, this amount of exercise (which I'm not used to!) may take it's toll over the next couple of days when I have more walking to do!

By the end of the week will I be loving the fresh air and exercise or pining for the western comforts of convenient travel?
How much transport do you use daily? 

 

I've just finished dinner, and I'm feeling alright about it.

Today I ate;

Breakfast: none. hadnt been shopping yet.

Lunch: tin of smartprice sausage and beans on toast

Dinner: pasta with some passata and a hard boiled egg. A piece of bread.

 The beige-ness of my new diet is making me a bit sad already, and i'm obsessing about food. Its odd how as soon as you're denied something you really really want it, I could murder a massive sugary doughnut. With sprinkles. I've already started making a mental list of what i'm going to eat at the end of the week. But at least I'm not hungry.

The real challenges lie ahead; how am I going to get home from work on wednesday night? what am I going to do if I run out of shampoo? How am I going to eat potatoes and beans when I go home this weekend for bonfire night? *groans at the thought of hot chocolate and gooey marshmallows and whipped cream*

Overall though I'm feeling pretty optimistic. Today hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, although I had a moment of temptation when I went to get a saucepan and saw a bulb of garlic. Surely one clove couldn't hurt? Temptation overcome. 

I'm also quite excited about my remaining pennies. There's some smartprice strawberry jelly and some mixed dried herbs that I'm eyeing up!

Total Donations Pledged So Far: £28

At first I thought a week of eating rice and beans for Oxfam poverty challenge week would be easy, after all I loved eating "gallo pinto" whilst travelling in Costa Rica. Also, working for a social enterprise cookey group, Cracking Good Food in Manchester, I was sure to find many ways in which to liven up my thrice daily fodder.

Alas, it dawned on me, that to truly realise the hardship of this challenge, I would have to forgo daily pleasures such as decent coffee and tea, drinks we take for granted in the West. Did you know that in tea and coffee producing countries the good stuff is exported so that we can have our daily caffeine fix? In countries like India and Nicaragua, a daily low-grade tea or coffee is often a luxury preserved for the affluent. I won't, however, drink low-grade tea or coffee that isn't fairly produced, so I am allowing myself one cup a day, together with some low-cost fruit and vegetables.

My purpose is to encourage my family and friends to take a minute and think about people that suffer real poverty, often so that we can benefit: farmers who aren't given a fair price for their crops and therefore can't feed their families, whole townships that are without water to enable us to eat tropical fruits such as pineapples and men and women working in appalling conditions so that we can have a new item of clothing that we may only wear once.

Please take a minute to think about the things that you consume, and question if it is harming the lives of others. If it is don't buy it. Just because you can't see the suffering, it doesn't mean it isn't happening.

Day One:

The time is currently 17:43 and I have yet to return home from a day of studying. Nevertheless, the ‘Poverty Challenge’ has already begun. It started from the moment I contemplated: ‘what does poverty mean to me?’

Poverty arouses an emotional response with corresponding emotional adjectives: injustice, inequitable, unfair, regrettable and preventable. Alone, these words are hollow. It is easy to criticise whilst remaining inert – this is not paradoxical, but hypocritical.

However, the first adjective which came to mind when I thought about poverty was not necessarily emotive. The word was ‘luck’. It is by a fortunate coincidence in my life that I was born into a typical British household. I did nothing to earn this. I do not deserve it, but I do not not deserve it either. This is the way things are: so it goes.

Owing to this luck, I was able to decide what ‘poverty challenge’ to adopt. In other words, I had a choice.

Should I refrain from using the internet for a week? No. I need it to complete my work.

Should I eat on less than £1 a day? No. I regularly play sport and it would be unfair on my teammates, not to mention my body.

Should I walk everywhere for a week? No. I need to be transported to where I study. At least that is unless I would be willing to walk for four hours each day.

These choices are largely trivial. The thought of thinking ‘how can I live in poverty’ makes me cringe with self-deprecation. It is reminiscent of nostalgie de la boue: yearning to live in poorer social conditions. It is easy to fall into the trap of romanticising those who live in poorer societies. The reality is that most of us would not swap our position in life for poverty. It may seem simpler than the tumult of a post-industrial society but there is nothing simple about what it is like to survive on an empty stomach.

So why did I choose to not use electric lighting at home? It will not solve poverty but will make my life considerably more difficult (but not to a debilitating extent). No, the reason why I am doing this is to raise awareness.

If anything, I hope the ‘challenge’ serves as a useful metaphor. According to the UN, in 2009 1.5 billion people lived without electricity. However, I do not want to perpetuate the image of impoverished people living in darkness. This would continue the trite visual stereotypes casting people as superior/inferior, civilised/barbaric and so forth.

Instead, I hope to shine a light on poverty. That is, I hope that this raises awareness; that it provokes people to become engaged and active in the issue.

Here is a good place to start.

Not sure I realised before today quite how much we rely on hot water, and take for granted the luxury of having running water whenever we want.

The flat was dirty when I woke today, and wanting to clean it, my first thought was to get a bowl of hot soapy water to clean and disinfect areas that needed cleaning. BUT using no hot water meant I couldn't do that. Obviously having access to soap in the first place helps with this particular case but it did help to highlight the issue here, which is the difficulty with which people living with no access to running water have to keep themselves and their homes hygienically clean and safe. A bit of dirt here or there wouldn't matter too much but it wouldn't take long for bacteria to breed and start to make places unsafe to live in. 

Such a simple point to make but it's a big problem for people living in poverty, and a problem that could potentially be solved very simply.

The worst thing about waking up this morning was the realisation that the challenge of using 'no hot water' would include sticking the kettle on for a cuppa. People living in poverty make sacrifices every day much worse than going without a brew in the morning. Going without what to some are considered unaffordable extras such as transport, heating or toiletries is a reality for many people, even in the UK, but not having a cup of tea really did give the day a bad start!                                     

The food shop itself was a rather harrowing experience - at first I went a bit overboard and had about £10 worth of food in the basket. SO then came the heartbreaking moment of replacing certain items on the shelves - logic won in the nutritional dilema of whether I should blow half the budget on cheese... I grudgingly bought vegetables instead.

I decided fairly early on that if there was going to one thing that I had to have during this week, then it was tea. As anyone who knows me will tell you, uncaffinated Anna is not a fun a experience. So tea is my luxury item for this week.

Items purchased:

- tea bags

- a bag of frozen veg

- 4 pints of milk

- bag of carrots

- 3 leeks

- bag of onions

- a cucumber

- box of muesli

- 1 kg of rice

And that is it. For a week.

The price of all these things came to £6.97 and there is still a little part of me that is eagerly on the look out for activities I can do/ things I buy for 3p! :)

The sad truth is that there are plenty of places in the world were people live on less than a £1 a day - and probably have to feed a family with this too! How can we let this happen?! I am doing this challenge this week out of solidarity for all those people (although I don't believe what I will experience will be anywhere near as hard as what they struggle with everyday) and I hope this will raise awareness and get people thinking...

More to come! :)

It turns out that Asda Smart Price lemon squash curdles when you put boiling water in it :(

Sponsorship Total so far: £21

I just did my asda shop for the week. I spent £6.74 and I'm really pleasantly suprised by how much food I managed to buy, even if it is all asda smart price labelled. 

So, this is what I will be eating this week;

• 75p worth of free range eggs (bulk purchase with housmates)
• 2.5kg potatoes - £1
• 4 tins chopped tomatoes- £1
• 4 tins baked beans - £1
• 1 loaf wholemeal bread- 47p
• 4 packets of chicken instant noodles- 40p
• 1 tin marrowfat peas -17p
• 1 tin cream of tomato soup- 17p
• 1 tin cream of chicken soup- 17p
• 1 tins sausages and beans -29p
• 1 bottle lemon squash- 29p
• 12 bags of 'maize snacks' - 47p
• 1 bag pasta shapes- 31p
• 1 carton passata- 25p

i probably bought too many carbs and things in tins, and definately not enough fresh things for a balanced diet, but at least i wont be hungry.

already I've started to think about the unneccessary cost of my life in things that i'm not giving up this week. I felt very guilty as i washed my hair in shampoo that cost £4.50 a bottle, and as I moisturised my legs with £12 body butter...even my £7 eczema cream is a luxury when you really think about it.

ALSO I've so far persuaded three of my lovely housemates to sponsor me! which you should all do too! If you want to sponsor me, give me a text or a message or something, 'twould be much appreciated!

x x x

So here we go with the challenge week!

What and Why?

I have decided to go vegan for a week, while I am aware that this may not seem that challenging to some, particularly those that are already vegan, I think it is really important to think about the access to food that we have. This week I cannot eat anything that has come from an animal, as to me, living in poverty means that mostly the only access you have to animals and the food they produce is by rearing your own animals and doing all the necessary things to get their produce. Therefore unless I rear or catch the animal myself I cannot have any products from an animal. So beans, lentils and soya it is then!

So far though I have still managed to have a breakfast, albeit a very healthy one (blueberries)! The challenge will come I think at lunch, when I will meet up with friends and go to a cafe. I wonder what I will be able to eat? Not a lot I imagine!

Best of luck to everyone else at Oxfam that is taking part in the challenge. It is great to see how many people care!

“Trick question, feminists can't change anything.”

Any of the views expressed in this blog are arguments, supported with facts.

Welcome to day one of my poverty challenge 1/11/10.

Today a woman is standing trial for stabbing her MP. She said that she did it because he voted for the Iraq War.

Since 2003, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, a war based on intelligence which has now proved to be untrue, votes of just 650 people, MPs, and the decisions of two world leaders who have since left office.

Several million people marched against the war, part of the War on Terror that blunders on in 2010.

The right to ‘freedom of speech’, to express ones’ opinion, was first recognized more than 2,000 years ago.

In many ways, it is hard to even conceive a life without it and this challenge has already presented me with some hurdles.

From making everyday choices, ‘Where would I like to go for tea?’ to expressing a preference at the ballot box, making decisions based on my opinion is in everything I do.

Today, in France, you will protest, in the United States, you will rally.

Even a simple joke can send a message.

How and why are some people deprived from expressing their opinion, making informed choices about their lives, having a voice?

Who and where does it happen and how does it differ around the globe?

And what happens when people’s voices aren’t heard?

What drives a woman to stab her MP?

In this blog I will seek to highlight examples, from the UK and around the world, of people’s lives when they do not get to have an opinion, trying to present only facts, as they speak for themselves.

That means my challenge has officially started.

I've got to say, I'm a bit scared. Not only because of my new, strictly budgeted diet, but also because I've never written a blog before (other than the mandatory teenage myspace account). So, bear with me.

My first act of the challenge was to tip all of the money in my purse onto my lap, and put seven not so shiny pound coins back in. They're already looking a bit meagre.

Seven Pounds... thats nothing.

• It's 4.3 Arriva bus fares
• It's less money than the book I'm studying this week cost me
• It's less than a third of a Papa John's Extra Large Pepperoni Pizza

What am I doing!?!

I am embarking on a Poverty Challenge that aims to highlight the Poverty of Voice. 

For me, this is about the millions of people in the world who still do not and cannot have a say in their lives, what is done to them, how it is done and what is done in their name.  This ranges voices in open spaces covering politics and democracy- the right to vote- to voice is closed spaces where people endure what life throws at them and there is no mechanism or ear to listen to their voices.

I hope to be able to draw attention to the 'hardly heard' voices in society and ask my MP what he is doing to ensure that those voices are heard and resources exist so that the voices that begin to emerge do not disappear and stopped being listened to.

I believe that having a voice is so fundamental to being able to live and fulfil one's potential.  As a naturally outspoken person who has an opinion on nearly everything I am intrigued to see how this week will go.