PovertyChallenge

This week we were interviewed by Emma Wass from Sheffield Live radio station (93.2) on her communities live show. We chatted about the poverty challenge and how it affected us. Hopefully another key way to raise awareness amongst listeners.

To listen to the interview go to:

http://www.sheffieldlive.org/podcast/index.php?page=2

It's 

Communities Live 10-11-2010 at 12:00

and it's about 30 minutes into the program.

You can also read Emma's blog at:

http://nowsheffield.blogspot.com/

Life in poverty is hardest when those around you have what they desire, you do not have the basics.  I think personally at least 1% of our GDP should go to combating poverty.  Ideally more.  We are making good progress at least with the 0.7% target by 2013.  I also believe the best way out is through education, without which poverty will remain, long after instant intervention is applied.  The best way for someone to escape the poverty trap is to be provided with the means of escape.

This last weeks challenge has been achievable but difficult.  Cravings for rich foods like chocolate and proper electric lighting were difficult to overcome. 

Life is hard in poverty.  We should be a good samaritan and help those in need.

Pete

Staff and pupils at Dore Primary have made it! We had a great Oxfam assembly to sum up the week, to remind children why we're doing the challenge and to celebrate their success. We had over 40 children taking part in the end, including some families. Their challenges ranged from sleeping on the floor (one of the most popular!) to giving up luxury foods to giving up computer games. The children who gave up things found it particularily difficult.

We met everyday and discussed how we were getting on. This 'meeting' became named by some children as 'the poverty club' and two children even made up a song about their challenge. On the last day we had a bit of fun with paint and painted our hands on a poster.

This was really significant because the children had committed to their challenge for the week, and if it had just been one person it wouldn't have been very noticable. Because there were many children involved, their hands worked together to make a difference. Our voices put together shouted out against the injustice in the world, hopefully making people stop and think about what poverty really is.

Below is our poverty pledge wall which can still be seen in the Main entrance.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this challenge from Dore Primary, including parents, staff and pupils. We have made an impact and together we can make a difference.

PS. You can follow my blog to see how I got on:

http://povertychallenge.21publish.com/KathrynEllis

Well we all made it! Congratulations to all those who took part, read the blogs, or had to hear all about the challenge face to face.

It's been an interesting week...

What I found hard:

*Waking up in the dark and having to feel around for a lighter to light the candle while I wanted to go back to sleep

How do people manage without electricity?

*Getting to and from school without using my car (cycled 1 day, bus 1 and a 1/2 days, lifts 2 days, ran home once).

How do people without a car afford the bus?

*Eating boring food and getting cravings for tasty food

Would we still get these cravings if we'd have been brought up on rice and beans?

*Not having time in the power hour to get everything done

What do people do in places where electricity is rationed?

What I have learned:

* That even if you don't have electricity, there is still an expectation to do the same amount of work, cook dinner, and have a shower. I'm meant to be training, I haven't run once. I thought it would be lovely to get home, chill out by candlelight. That didn't happen, it was rush rush rush then sleep.

* That buses in the UK are very expensive and it probably works out cheaper to drive, even though I know it is terribly bad for the environment. I plan to car share more and ride/run once a week.

* That poverty is tough. No-one should have to live without electricity, without enough food to eat, without clean water, without shelter, without rights. Poverty is unfair. It is unjust. This week has reminded me how comfortable our lives are. We have everything we need, everything we want. We don't have to think about survival. Our little brains worry about work and friends and things we take for granted. We would be lost if they were taken away.

I've done this challenge at school and it has been very rewarding to see the response of the children. I hope through this week many people will have been challenged to do something about poverty, to realise how lucky we are and just how tough poverty is.

http://povertychallenge.21publish.com/DorePrimarySchool

Today I got the bus to and from school. It cost me nearly £5. Probably similar to our food budget for the whole week! How can someone living in poverty be expected to get the bus in the UK?

One of my pledges was to go carless. I live about 6 miles from work. So i've ridden to work, which was ok, although up hill all the way and not exactly the quietest of routes. I've got lifts a couple of times with a teacher who lives near me and is so kind to come and pick me up. But I thought I ought to give the bus a try.

Yes it may be more environmentally-friendly but its not economically-friendly. Plus the rain doesn't help.

So what would you do if you couldn't afford a car? Could you really afford a bus pass? It costs over £700 for a years bus pass in Sheffield, which is cheaper than paying nearly £5 a day but surely more expensive than driving. I have to say I am not convinced it is the way forward.

The most obvious choice would be a free one, i.e. cycling or walking or running. But in this weather? Really?

Contunually hungry still, craving sweet stuff.  Everything i can't have.

Fed up of the dark at home.

Looking forward to be out of poverty.

The key to escape poverty in my view is education.

I asked the children 4 questions related to their challenges. Here are the responses:

1. What's the worst type of poverty?

*No food (14 children)

*No clean water (15)

*Poor Health (11)

*No rights e.g. education (13)

So all in all quite a balanced result, showing that the children are aware of different types of poverty and actually they're all as bad as each other.

2. What could you do to stop poverty?

-Give a lot of stuff away to charity.

-Send food and money.

-Do a walk/run for charity.

-Raise money.

-Go there and clean their water.

-Get them into school.

-Give them some food and blankets.

3. What could you do to stop poverty if you were the Prime Minister?

-I would build better houses.

-Poor people can have anything for free.

-Give everyone a job for free.

-Free rice.

-To take money off footballers because they get way more money than they should have so use the money to buy   and send food to people!

-Send cows to milk and eat.

-Make sure every village has a fresh water pump.

And finally...

4. What is the hardest thing about your challenge?

-Doing it for a whole week.

-Getting to sleep.

-Sleeping on the floor.

-The hardest thing was that it was not comfy.

-Not forgetting to do it.

I think the children are doing a superb job, and although some of them are enjoying sleeping on the floor, I think they are all realising that it is a challenge and they would not like to have to live like this forever.

Would you?

I met with the children today and the number seems to be ever growing. Other teachers in the school have been talking about the poverty challenge with their classes. Children are seeing others wearing the badge and all this is inspiring more children to get involved. Here's a snapshot of how the children are feeling today and the sorts of challenges they've been doing:

1 child sleeping on the floor

Some of their responses from today:

'My pledge is to sleep on the floor, don't eat sweets and don't drink fizzy pop. It is hard but I think it is worth it. I wanted to know what it felt like in poverty.'

'My challenge is to only watch telly for ten minutes. I am finding it quite hard.'

'I am giving up football. Hard!'

They're doing a fab job. Keep it up guys!

It's day 3 of eating porridge made with water - yuk! I confess we have had some stewed apple to lessen the pain the last 2 days (apples donated from my mum's garden so cost nothing!) but I have to say it is the yukiest food ever. All gloopey and stodgy. Do people really live off food like this?

No I don't want anymore thank you!

For lunch I have had cheap and cheerful white bread that sticks to the top of your mouth as you eat it....filled with 'plastic cheese' which really does taste of nothing.

Dinner has mainly been rice and beans with a few vegetables that were going off.

I seem to have a constant mild hunger, although work does distract me. Tonight I finished dinner and had eaten enough, yet I still felt unsatisfied, like I was missing something. The chocolate cravings have started, or maybe just cravings for something different to eat.

People in Philippine slums usually eat a massive mound of rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, often with little else. I wonder how they can bear it, how they don't get sick of all that rice. We're so lucky here to have the choice of rice, bread, potato, pasta, pizza, English food, American food, Italian food, Indian food, Chinese food, Thai food, the list goes on. We're so spoilt for choice.

People in West Africa are suffering from two years of famine, some are struggling to survive on what they can find in the wild.

Whereas we in the West are throwing vast amounts of food away as waste.

Where is the fairness in that?

- Have bought some more candles today.  Fell asleep with a candle lit...  Lighting with candles is dangerous and seriously annoying!

- I'm missing sweet foods and savoury food treats. 

- I'm also missing using a computer during the evenings for organising life and entertainment.

- Perhaps the worst thing about poverty is knowing that many others do not have to endure the same hardships. Some live like kings, often among paupers.

As day 2 draws to a close I have been sitting in my lounge, covered in a double duvet, knitting to candlelight. There's been something quite serene about it. No noise apart from the howling gale outside. No artificialness. Peace.

Conversations I've had today have included a stilt village in Ghana, probably something like this:

They have no electricity, and yet are still up until the early hours just hanging around chatting with friends. It got me thinking. I come home from work at a loss, what is there to do which doesn't require electricity? And yet this is the reality for some people everyday. And what do they do? They don't come home from work and sit in silence, knitting and wondering if there could be a way to spend my time better. No, life goes on, life is what you make of it. If you don't have electricity, the world doesn't stop, life is just very different from what we have come to expect here in the West. We talked about the black-outs in Sheffield after the floods, 3 hours at a time so the fridge was ok. People didn't mope around, wondering what to do. We lit those candles and actually had a fun time.

Do you think you could live in a world without electricity?

The wind is howling at the door, the rain battering the windows.  We are sat on the sofa under a duvet to keep warm, difficult with no central heating.  Just cooked tea and will wash up soon.  Then the power is out, back to the cold dark night...

A little melodramatic... but true.  I also awoke unusually at 3.30am having fallen asleep at 9.30 last night.  So I read, tried to sleep and read a bit more.  I'm quite bored of only reading.  But alas I'm not allowed on the power consuming computer except to blog.  So I read until I went to work. 

Today I have been missing my KitKat with coffee during break.  I've also been feeling hungry all day with the 'minimalist' food diet.  Alas, it could be far worse!

The children came back from half term enthused to do something for our poverty challenge. After reminding them in assembly what it was all about, challenging them to think about what life is like for people who are less fortunate than ourselves, we were flooded with pledges.

We have a pledge wall outside the staff room with lots of comments from the children about what poverty means to them.

Comments from the children so far:

'I'm feeling quite scared because sleeping on the floor is not very comfortable.'

'I'm a bit scared about not eating all those sweats and sugary stuff but I know I can do it!'

'I did feel scared because if you sleep on the floor it is easy for people to stand on you.'

'I'm also doing lowest food budget and tonight all i'm having is plain pasta!'

'I'm not sure whether I will be able to keep up this challenge for the whole week but I will try my hardest.'

'I should try and see what it is like to be poor because you should never take your things for granted.'

'I've already started no luxury foods by giving away my chocolate egg.'

'I'm doing this so I know how people who don't have enough money to buy a bed feel every night on the floor.'

'It is quite a challenge for me.'

Tune in tomorrow for more comments!

Miss Ellis 

Things we are doing:

1. No heating

2. Basic Food, e.g. rice and small chicken portion, small chicken portion rice and beans, rice and chicken, etc...  Porridge and water for breakfast, cheap bread and basic filling for lunch

3. 1 hr of power and hot water per day

4. No car

N.B. except at work, i work in a lab so is not feasible!

Comments after day 1:

• This reminds me of my young life in a 1980's council house.  No heating except for a coal fire...  Avoiding the call of the utility companies...
• Whilst brushing my teeth i blew out my candle, rather awkward
• Candlelight is next to useless for many tasks.
• Cheap bread is rather stodgy!

Our power hour is coming to an end. I realise I always took the bright kitchen lights for granted, after sitting reading by candle light for the last hour. There's something romantic about the flickering candle, surrounded in darkness.

My poverty challenge began with a pleasant ride to work, slight drizzle, not too many manic drivers. I arrived with a flat tyre, somehow managing to not notice until I stopped riding. With images of being stranded at school for the night or pushing my bike the 2 hour walk home I was much relieved when a knight in shining armour came to my rescue!

I feel like i've been racing against time today. I had to do as much as possible at work and still leave in daylight so I could cycle home. When I got home, I realised how much we rely on electricity. Normally I come home, have a cup of tea and a snack and turn the computer on. I just didn't know what to do with myself! There has been more time racing tonight as we try to shower, cook tea, wash up and write a blog in one hour. I think we've just about made it!

Phew! Lights out, computer off, back to candle light.

I've decided to take on several challenges; To use 1 hour per day of electricity at home; to not use heating; to not use my car; to have a minimal food budget

For me this will be a challenging week to reflect on what it would be like to be without some of the things we take for granted. As the weather gets colder it will be a particular challenge to be without heating and only have electricity for 1 hour. I am also keen to raise awareness to help people think about the reality of what poverty means to them.

I live in Sheffield and will be asking my MP Nick Clegg to respond to my challenge - what do you think he will say?

This week I am undertaking a few challenges as a way to start debate about what poverty really means. Even though I am daunted by the sacrifices I am making for the week I realise that it still won't even compare to the challenges that people in poverty hae to face every day, and of course they can't just give it up at the end of the week. I am going to do my best to succeed. I think no electricity is going to be the toughest.

Will Nick Clegg respond?

This Blog is to represent pupils, teachers and parents of Dore Primary School who are getting involved in the poverty challenge week.
People from the school are taking on a wide variety of challenges: From sleeping on the floor to only drinking water for the week. From giving up chocolate and sweets to not buying any new clothes.

The school is passionate to be a leader in the community to raise awareness about poverty and suffering in the world.

Dore Primary School is situated in Sheffield Hallam constituency: MP Nick Clegg