PovertyChallenge

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 feel a bit like Jerry Springer, summing up at the end of another tough and challenging broadcast. Except it was acutally tough and challenging, and while I have still been relatively warm and well-fed (unlike some of the hardier challengers!) the experience has made me think about what it must be like to live in poverty, day-in-day out.

I chose to live on £5 a day because I thought I wouldn't be able to cut out electricity or water entirely, and limiting my luxuries would probably be good for me. After deducting bills, doing a reduced food shop and deciding to cycle everywhere this week (despite the rain) I was suprised to find quite a bit of money still left, and while going to the cinema mid-week probably wasn't the best idea (I have had a very quiet weekend!), I didn't starve. I did, however, postpone a hair cut until next week, wear ripped jeans that I couldn't afford to replace (cycling everywhere seems to put undue stress on denim...), and didn't see my friends as often as I would have liked. I got soaked when I couldn't use public transport, I wore more jumpers to keep warm, and it'll be a long time before I ever want to see another carrot sandwich. What if I'd fallen ill and had to pay more than a day's allowance for a prescription?

I've realised the worst thing about living on £5 a day isn't the actual day-to-day existance, but not having enough in an emergency. It's impossible to save anything, and so living on £5 a day means constantly living on the brink of destitution.

More than 1 in 5 people in the UK live in poverty. In Glasgow, a child born in the poorest district has a life expectancy of 54 while a child born in one of the same city's more affluent areas will live to 82. I find it hard to belive that in such a wealthy country as the UK such a divide can exist. Thanks to those who have sponsored me, a donation to Oxfam to tackle support their work here and abroad. Taking part in the poverty challenge has really made me determined to campaign against the injustice of poverty, and I hope reading the blog of all these wonderful povery challengers will make you so too!

So it's the final day of the water challenge and I am looking forward to a life of walking for the joy of it rather than having to to get enough water.

This last week has really helped to show me just how tough a woman who has to walk for her water has to be, there are difficult decisions to be made everyday about what to use the water for and how much time/ energy you have left after going to get your water. Water becomes something at the forefront of your mind and something you carefully measure and watch - I don't think I'll ever take turning the tap on for granted in the same way now.

This last week I have walked 86.1km which earnt me 284.13 litres of water and currently I have used 282.13 litres (likihood is I shall go over my quota before midnight tonight).

To achieve these water stats I have had to not wash my clothes or my hair and to wash from a bucket rather than a shower. I have had to measure/ rationalise every bit of water I am to use with many calculations on pieces of paper and literally see a lot of my water flushed down the toilet!

Highlights of this week have been meeting my MP John Leech and talking with him about climate change and my challenge and the fact he is going to support our challenges by putting an early day motion in about them! I have also felt hugely supported by the community of people doing the challenges and a lot of people who are not (thank you!).

An average person on the UK would use 1050 litres in a week = I used only a quarter of that this last week.

I think going forwards from this week I will try to make sure that I really try to reduce the amount of water that I waste. I think that a key way for us to think about tackling climate change is not just our carbon footprint but our water footprint too.

I hope that you have found my challenge and my blog interesting - thanks for reading!

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!

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.

So today was pretty usual for this week, same carrot sandwiches, same cycle to work in the rain. And as usuual for a Friday evening I went to my Spanish class - it wasn't until I was on my way there that I realised that although I have already paid for the course I should probably factor the cost of this class into my budget. Which would be over two day's worth of my allowance and would put me in debt... but as I had spent a good hour of my morning before work doing my homework for the class (leaving things til the last minute being my speciality) I decided to cheat a bit and go.

Funnily enough, global poverty wasn't the topic of today's class and given that it's beginner's level I found myself reaching for the dictionary a lot to explain myself (although we did learn to say "yo estudio espanol para coquetear con la gente atractiva" ... work it out for yourself).

But the whole episode did remind me than living in poverty isn't just about a struggle with the daily costs of living. The costs of education are astronomical for those living in poverty, and people are forced to make ridiculous choices: school or medicine, education or food?

A Youtube search for "spanish" and "poverty" found this litte gem, El Tiempo es Hoy. Enjoy!

There will be a bar of fairtrade chocolate up for grabs at Tuesday's meeting for the best blog! The criteria for the winner will be the most interesting blog, pure and simple, so get writing!!!

Oh my gosh, i'm alone in the house where all the snacks live, so close to the kitchen I could just clear it out! However, I am close to budget because I bought half a coke in the Cambridge for 95p. I couldn't just sit there and not buy a drink it's rude!!

So blooming hungry I could eat a horse, or perhaps just a thigh of a horse. I wonder how Flick is getting on with her £1 a day, even less than me and i'm struggling to be honest!

I've got work tonight and won't be able to buy my usual subway at 2am :-(

But I have some potato salad so it should be fine. I'm definitely saving money as well. Perhaps i'll use the money i'm saving to buy an extra chocolate bar on Tuesday for the best challenge! 

Wish me luck resisting subway and the snack room!

xx 

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!

So today I walked in a different direction - I went to meet my MP John Leech at his constituency office in Didsbury (South Manchester).

We had a really good chat about the poverty challenge, what poverty meant to him, and even had a glass of water together!

We also talked about climate change and how we need to get more MPs seeing the long term importance of taking climate action now - perhaps by showing them the financial gain they will make in the long run? Though I stand by it being a justice issue for me - why should the poorest countries have to be hit the hardest by something they have barely contributed to?

We discussed how natural disastors were getting worse and more frequent and both talked of our personal experiences of visiting communities hit by climate change - John in Bangladesh and myself in Uganda.

We talked about the need for additional sources of financing beyond the 0.7% of gdp that's been promised for 2013 and of how the UK needs to be a world leader in tackling climate change and implimenting ideas like the robin hood tax to find the additional money needed to do so - rather than waiting for someone else to lead the way.

We also talked about how people like us poverty challengers could have more influence on shaping the governments policy - and he was very supportive of what we've done so far - going on to say get more people involved and talking to more MPs! That if people aren't out there showing that they care then the government wont consider it a priority issue.

In fact John liked the poverty challenge idea so much he is going to put an early day motion into parliament next week to highlight what we've been up to and the fact that over 100 people across the North of England (from the age of 4-60) took part to show their solidarity with people living in poverty in the UK and overseas.

Check out my video interview with John.

Finally I'd like to wish good luck to everyone taking part in the Big Climate Connection today/tomorrow - a mass constituency lobby on climate change right across the country! I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!

Happy bonfire night everyone (I'll update with full walking/water stats and my story of being soaked through by a lorry tomorrow :)

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

Amazing how easy it is to disappear when you are not in permanent contact with the world digitally. It's quite nice in fact to fall off the radar for a while, a bit of peace and quiet is definitely welcome.

I checked my email on a computer today (how old fashioned!) and realised what the bulk of what I receive and deal with instantly as it comes through to my phone was. It was in fact 90% rubbish. Tons of advertising, notifications and spam with very little of importance interpersed within it. When you get a spam message during the day you delete it there and then without a second thought and just forget about it. When you see laid out how little of what I get is actually useful it made me think that perhaps it isn't such a big deal not having them to hand at all times.

Could it be the more time I spend away from my phone, the less I care?

Now imagine no TV, Radio, phone, internet or newspapers. Could you cope?

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?

So for the fourth day in a row I walked home in the rain ... 4 out of 4 ... must be getting a bit dull to read about. At least Manchester is keeping up its rainy reputation!

Today I got thinking a lot about the phrase 'water water everywhere but not a drop to drink' - it seems very apt for me at the moment when I'm tending to spend a couple of hours each day walking in the rain. It got me thinking about the water we can and can't use - did you know that only 0.7% of the world's water is freshwater available for drinking and with increasing population/ urbanisation/ climate change/ consumption of water that supply is going to more and more stretched. The other problem is that water is already poorly spread as it is and some countries don't have the infrastructure to access their water supply as well as others at the moment.

Water is an essential in our lives and I'm not sure until this week I have ever really thought about it that much and appreciated how lucky I am to have such easy access to as much clean fresh water as I want in my normal life. 

Water stats for the day:

Walked: 11.75km    Water earnt: 38.78 litres + (left over from yesterday 17.38) = 56.16 litres   Water used: 42.36 litres

Left for tomorrow: 13.8 litres ... Not a lot left tonight - went a bit crazy washing dishes and drank quite a lot because I was feeling a wee bit dehydrated. Once again I went into water debt in the morning despite my best efforts!

Ways I have managed to cheat the system to stay within my limit but that I wouldn't realistically be able to do forever:

- I haven't washed any clothes - despite the fact I have a lot of muddy trousers now from the rainy walks home.

- I have washed out of a bucket rather than showering as I normally do - I have not yet bucket washed my hair.

- I've eaten very dry food - though I have huge soup cravings

- I've tried to do as many water saving things that I can (though sadly I don't have a supply of hippos to put in every toilet and reduce the waste sadly as it's still annoyed how much flushing the toilet takes up out of my limit!)

Good news:

Tomorrow you won't just have to hear from me - I'm meeting my MP John Leech to talk about my challenge and what poverty, climate change and water means to him!

My challenge at the moment is to walk 6km to get water ... but if as a society we continue to generally ignore/ be apathetic towards climate change as we are now - how far will I have to walk next year to get my water? I want to know what I can do alongside my MP to reduce the distance that me and so many other women are walking for water today... rather than see it rise!

So last night I decided to blow a large percentage of my money for the week on a trip to the cinema... Foolish, you might say, and indeed by Saturday I'll probably agree with you.

But living in a city centre as I do the temptation to go out and have fun is always there - everything is in such easy reach and everywhere you look is an advert telling you of something amazing you must buy/do/watch/wear. With spare cash in your pocket it's perhaps not so noticeable, but when you begin your mornings with a calculation of what you can afford that day,  the desire to live like other people gets pretty strong.

The Kids Are Alright is a great film, good "slice of life" type drama, and given that I work for a gay empowerment charity, seeing it with workmates and discussing the represenation of lesbian parenting could perhaps be seen as important for my job (can you tell I'm scraping the barrell for justifications?). But post-film chat over a glass of water is just not the same as over a glass of wine, and I did spent rather a cold night with the heating turned off and no warming cup of tea when I got in...

Obviously I'm really lucky to have even the option of disposable income to spend on leisure, and there are plenty of people living in impoverished countries for whom a trip to the cinema would be an alien concept. But it did make me think especially about people living in poverty in this country - asylum seekers and refugees, for example. Living a precarious existence in a place of such conspicuous consumption is not to be underestimated.

Loving people's blog updates, by the way, particulary impressed by the sleeping-in-a-tent girl!

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.

So as you may gather from the title I'm starting to get a bit tired of walking for water. I love to walk - in the hills and the sunshine and when I want to walk ... Not at the end of a day at work in the rain ... for the third day in a row. I'm just not sure that if I did have to do this everyday I'd be able to keep doing a full time job as well.

Tonight I was happy that it was only drizzle to walk home in - compared to last night's swim home. But I guess Im one of those people who likes to do things when I want to - not because I have to! Walking down the same dark, straight damp roads is just monotonous after a while. Why is it the morning walk in the light is always so much more pleasant?

I had a good afternoon in Lancaster meeting with the new Oxfam university group up there (including the lovely Heather Mack who I was pleased to see had not blown away in her tent!). But it's not a fun decision to make on the train home as to how far away train station I should get off at when all I want to do is get home into the warm ... but I want water when I get there!

Good points of today:

- Comments of support from people (including my MP John Leech) and reading how well everyone else is doing despite the challenges.

- Seeing the enthusiasm of uni students in Lancaster

- Reaslising I miscalculated my water so I might be able to water afford to bucket wash in the morning - you have no idea how exciting that is!

- Kindness of my lovely housemates despite my self pity

Worst points of today:

- Becoming so tired zzzzz (can I still blame it on the malaria? I think its been too long!) and feeling a bit fed up and a bit grumpy - I'm normally a pretty chirpy soul

- Realising I went into water debt this morning (from flushing the toilet and bucket washing) and realising therefore I was breaking the challenge as a woman who walked 6km to get her water wouldn't be able to do that.

- Seeing the waste of water along the way to and from work - hosepipes going on the floor, rain puddles that block the road and evaporate rather than going into the drains.

Water stats for the day:

Walked: 14.28km Water earnt: 47.12 litres + yesterdays left over (+5.83 left from yesterday) = 52.95 litres Water used: 35.575 litres

Water left over for the morning: 17.38 litres

Final water thought for the day:

Tomorrow is half way through (phew - I'm really not that tough I'm starting to realise!) - Today as I was walking I got thinking about water gadgets and wanted to share this ted video: Watch through to minute 7 and you'll see them discussing the fact that people don't need fancy gadgets to filter water just a simple bit of clean cloth folded up 8 times - why isn't this more well known? Why do people buy all the fancy water filters?

Righto enough of my moaning - after all I have a warm bed to go to. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to my chipper singing in the rain self. Especially if my MP John Leech agrees to meet up on Friday to talk about my challenge???

Need to call my family, forgot to tell them I was doing this and I am imagining many many missed calls enquiring as to whether anything is wrong with me. Problem is, I don't know anybody's number any more and I am not allowed to look them up on my phone. This was a problem I did not forsee, as all potential problems I had thought of revolved around missing texts, calls and emails or not having sat nav or internet at my fingertips. And so, I am stuck. I will just have to call everyone up on Monday and tell them why I have been a virtual recluse.

Did you ever notice how everyone everywhere  always has their phone in their hands all of the time? No? Perhaps its just me then.

Did you know that $1.6 Billion will be spent on mobile apps this year? And that there will be 6.1 trillion texts sent in 2010? How about the fact that if you add in data revenues, mobile phone traffic is worth a trillion dollars a year? These are big numbers, showing how obsessed the world is with mobile phones. Think of that money, how connected the world is and think about how people could use this to change the world.

Looks like it isn't just me then.

Above: Pic taken by housemate Liz showing off my beans for the night...pack of mangetout beans and the rest of a can of mixed beans from breakfast/lunch.

Think the lack of nutrients and food has finally started to kick in as im feeling grumpy, tired and hungry today. So be prepared for a bean bitching session.

Woke up mega hungry this morn and trundlled downstairs for the first bowl of beans of the day. My primary task, which is repeatedly becoming an abrasive one at meal times, is to open the can with my begruding can opener, which was abandoned for the knife in a sudden moment of bean agression.

Was so hungry, they actually started to smell pretty good while i was heating them up, but alas, this was pretty much realised as a cruel game played by the beans. Had half a can for breakfast, but were real overcooked and mushy, ( my attentions had turned to an over sensitive smoke alarm), to the extent i actually started to gag and had to abandon them for a glass of water! Sounds dramatic but its true... (beans are stodgy evil things when they're over cooked i have found, and should be avoided at all costs). The rest are in my bag which ive been having spoonfuls of throughout the day to keep my energy topped up, just about.

I've also been trying to write a 1500 word essay in the library. My grumbling stomach has been providing a soundtrack to this all day. For the past 2 hours, iv been thinking intemittently about the dream snack i would like before my walk home and i have concluded with a simple cheese sandwhich. My food day dreams are getting ridiculous, and have taken over all other day dream topics this week. And due to lack of brain power, not particularly imaginitive food day dreams either!

Ive also been walking to and from uni this week in skint student mode, which is a couple of miles each way, and this new diet has definetly been making me feel knackered by the time i get in. Goin to have the rest of the beans i didnt finish for lunch tonight with brown rice and some green beans, and im so hungry, ill actually be anticipating that bad boy during my long walk back in the rain! I couldnt imagine doing a hard days work, and coming home to find no food at all...in comparison my beans would probably be a god send to many people in poorer parts of the world. Perhaps that's enough bitching about my beans for now.

God knows what ive talked about on the blog today....sorry guys.. blame my bean brain..

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

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? 

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!

Day 2: having done the calculations for the week's expenditure and factored in all my bills and the food shop yesterday, it's another carrot sandwich today and a walk to work. All well and good in the sunshine, but by this evening it is absolutely chucking it down, as anyone who lives in Manchester will testify. What's worse, I don't have a raincoat with me and I've already promised to accompany a poverty-challenge friend on her walk home to Chorlton. We set off in high spirits but by the time we get there I actually have to peel my jeans off my legs and ring a pool of water out of them!

Manchester in the rain (artisit's impression)

A return bus ride would've cost me a day's worth of water, gas and electricity, and I chose to run the risk of pneumonia so that I could turn on the heating and make a cuppa when I get home! When every penny needs to be accounted for, simple choices that I wouldn't usually give a second thought become really significant. 

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? 

 

Well, the first day of the poverty challenge kicked in when I realised I had neglected to go food shopping at the weekend, and would not be able to afford to buy a tasty deli sandwich during my lunch-break at work. A hasty carrot sandwich was cobbled together (the sole contents of my fridge), which I admit did attract some sideways looks from my colleagues. All in the aid of awareness-raising, of course.

Shopping at Asda later today I kept to a strict budget and couldn’t afford to choose anything fair-trade or organic, highlighting the cost of some principles I take for granted.

I also missed out on the afternoon chocolate-run at work   It’s not until you can’t have something that you realise how much you miss it.

Other, hopefully more profound, insights to come!

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.

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!?!