Jeremy Lives Below the Line - Final Day

Watch Jeremy on his last day on the Live Below the Line challenge:

Jeremy Lives Below the Line - Day 4

Jeremy on Day 4:

The Clarke's Live Below the Line

UPDATE

We are all surviving. A little hungry at times, and missing the choices and variety of diet. 

This morning I went up to the chicken cope to get the eggs (we have 2 chickens), and as usual, one of them had pecked into the eggs, so no egg for me. 

We have one egg left and two days to go so not sure who in the family will be eating that?!

It was a reality check that this is what would happen out there in a village if the chickens didn’t perform.

Brian did suggest we could kill one and have it for the last supper, but the kids are not keen!

So I hope my stern words to them help them lay tomorrow! 

Enjoying the challenge - it's a real eye opener to experience how 1.4 billion live every week!

UPDATE  (from Maree Nutt, National Manager of RESULTS)

As you know you have already exceeded the $4,000 target. Congratulations!

This funding will enable at least 4 RESULTS people to be trained as Global Poverty Project presenters in the near future.

And hopefully, this will lead to greater awareness and action (esp. with RESULTS) to end extreme poverty in our lifetime.

Jeremy Lives Below the Line - Day 3

Jeremy on Day 3:

Jeremy Lives Below the Line - Day 2

Check out how RESULTS' Outreach Coordinator, Jeremy Picone, is travelling on his second day on the Live Below the Line challenge. 

Jeremy Lives Below the Line

RESULTS' Outreach Coordinator, Jeremy Picone, describes his experience on his first day in his challenge on living on just $2 a day. 

Live Below the Line

Today marks the first day of the Live Below the Line Campaign, where RESULTS members will be spending just $2 a day each on food to experience, and raise awareness first-hand the effects of extreme poverty.

Live Below the Line is an incredible new awareness and fundraising campaign that's making a huge difference in the fight against extreme poverty.

Quite simply, it allows thousands of Australians to better understand the daily challenges faced by those trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty, and builds a movement of passionate people willing and able to make a meaningful difference for those who need it most.

The week of Live Below the Line is a week like no other. From May 16th - 20th, thousands of Australians will spend just $2 each day on food, and use their daily experiences to bring extreme poverty to the centre of conversation in homes around Australia. We'll all be challenged, we'll struggle without caffeine, and have a faint feeling of being not quite full for the whole week.

FYI: The UN Human Poverty Index (HPI) for 2006 only has a ranking for 18 of the 21 countries with the highest Human Development Index. In the report, Australia is ranked 14th in the OECD, with a HPI of 12.8.

THIS WEEK a group of RESULTS members will be taking part in the Live Below the Line campaign in an effort to raise awareness in the fight against extreme poverty.

Christine Clarke, RESULTS' Fundraising Coordinator, and her family are all getting involved this year to better understand the daily challenges faced by those trapped in the cycle of extreme poverty.

Christine Clarke: 

I’m doing this because I want to try and appreciate what it would be like to have few choices about what I eat and yet try and stay well and give my family a nutritious diet so they grow and survive childhood and develop as they should.

I am not looking forward to going without my glass or wine or maybe a chocolate with a cup of tea at the end of a busy day with Brian, but I believe we will not go hungry! 

I am inspired by my children for being prepared and enthusiastic about doing this with us, and willing to experience some small hardships, and possibly be questioned at school next week from friends and peers who may question: “Why wouldn't you do that?"!

   
Tess Clarke (12-yrs-old):

I am doing this because I want to raise awareness to others about the Global Poverty Project and show people that no matter how young you are you can make a difference.

I am not looking forward to eating pumpkin soup with no cream and porridge for breakfast.

I'm inspired by my mother and RESULTS. I mean they were the ones that told me about it, but it all started when I watched a video clip 'The Girl Effect' and it impacted on me and made me want to do more for others.

Ally Goodwin:

I'm doing this because I want to understand, at least in part, what it's actually like living life where every tiny choice affects whether or not you or your family can eat next time you're hungry. 

I also hope that my taking part will help raise awareness of what life's like for so many people everywhere, which can so often seem so far away when we are indeed the minority. 

I'm not looking forward to going to work (in a cafe) and taking everyone's meals to them, which I know at the time will seem luxurious and gigantic!

I'm inspired by the people who live harder than this every day and who I have never heard complain.

UPDATE
Watch the Clarke family (at the link below) explain their reasons why they're taking on the Live Below the Line Challenge on Channel 10's current affairs program 'George Negus at 6.30' last Friday. 

The Clarke's Living Below the Line Challenge

Foreign Aid Budget boosted

The foreign aid budget was announced yesterday.

We will see an increase in the aid program of nearly half-a-billion dollars compared to 2010-11.

Our aid level will increase to 0.35 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), and Australia remains on track to reach an aid level of 0.5 per cent of GNI by 2015.

This is positive news to be recognised.

Actions you can take:

1) Respond to a short article in The Sydney Morning Herald 'Boost to Neighbours'

2) Make a comment on more general Budget articles in any newspaper. For example:

Not tough but definitely responsible
(Comment on the responsibility by working towards the targeted aid level of 0.5 per cent) 

Rudd's legacy as PM slashed in search of savings

(Comment on increasing aid as an example of Rudd's 'legacy') 

RESULTS hopes to provide its own analysis of the Budget by tomorrow in terms of our Current Campaigns.

In the meantime, you can review the analysis of the Budget by the Australian Council for International Development here:

ACFID Budget round up

Aid Promise: On Track to Save Thousands of Lives

Marc Purcell, Executive Director of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID): "This is a responsible move. 18 out of our 20 closest neighbours are developing countries. Some of them rank amongst the poorest nations in the world. It is the right thing for Australia to build a more secure, peaceful neighbourhood through the aid program."

ACFID applauds the increase in core funding to health in the aid budget, moving from 14 to 17% of total Australian aid. “Australian aid saves lives. It helps to inoculate children against life-threatening diseases and saves mothers from death during childbirth," Mr Purcell said. 

Finally, and belatedly, an article 'Helping those beyond our shores is good business', from May 9, by Australian of the Year, Simon McKeon, in support of increasing our aid:

...I've also had the opportunity to see what a difference the aid provided by our federal government makes in some of the poorest countries in the world.


Given this generosity, it is both disappointing and perplexing that our government's overseas aid program is not well recognised.


Contrary to widespread belief, our federal government spending on overseas aid is not the most generous in the world. Notwithstanding our relative economic prosperity, we currently rank only 15th out of the 23 OECD countries...

Budget 2011: Aid Budget

The Federal Aid Budget will be released later tonight.

It is likely that this is one of the areas that will fair well in the budget.

This is because there is a bilateral commitment to achieve an aid level of 0.5% by 2015.

However, there still might be some negativity in the media on this issue.

RESULTS encourages you to write online comments and letters-to-the-editors in support of an increasing aid program.

See the below post of a recent Editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald, and yesterday's piece in The Age: Gates calls for more foreign aid

BILLIONAIRE philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates has weighed in to Australia's budget debate, urging the Gillard government to hold firm on its plan to double Australia's foreign aid in the next five years.

"We're having to remind them that the needs of the poorest are not the way people should balance their budgets," he said.

Both the government and opposition are committed to increasing Australia's foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI), or more than $8 billion a year, by 2015-16.

"The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway … have been above [0.7] per cent for quite some time. The United Kingdom, who of course has had a 10 per cent budget deficit, amazingly will get to [0.7] per cent by 2013."

Australia donates at less than half that rate. This year's aid budget is 0.33 per cent of GNI.

UPDATE 
A slight increase, but it looks like Australia is on its way of sticking to its commitment to increase foreign aid to 0.5 per cent by 2015-16.

Here's the breakdown:

• Foreign aid boosted by almost half-a-billion dollars to $4.84b.
• Foreign aid will now account for 0.35 per cent of national income.
• Gov't aims to raise it to 0.5 per cent of national income by 2015/16.
• The govt will spend $1.9b on new aid measures over the next four years.

Budget 2011: High hopes for aid revamp

Aid groups are hoping that in tonight's budget will shake up the priorities of Australia's multi-billion dollar foreign aid program, shifting money away from programs to improve governance in developing countries and education initiatives.

At present, governance takes more than one-fifth of the $4.3 billion aid budget - more than any other area. World Vision Australia's chief executive, Tim Costello, said: "Health and education getting more weight in the AusAID budget is really important." The executive director of the Australian Council for International Development, Marc Purcell, said he wanted ''at least 20 per cent of the budget directed towards health systems in developing countries, and a similar proportion towards education''.