Day 8 - Tearfund

Day 8 - Tuesday 8th January 2013

Tuesday's Menu:

Breakfast: 50g of Porridge oats and water, with 50g of mixed frozen fruit and a tsp of sugar.
Lunch: Tesco Value Cup a Soup
Dinner: Home made chips, 3 tbsp of mixed vegetables and 1 egg.

Great dinner even with the lack of Ketchup

Today was a great day. I was really excited about the food items I had bought yesterday and couldn't wait to start experimenting. Breakfast was so much better than last week. Its amazing what a spoonful of sugar can do to a bowl of watery porridge. I genuinely enjoyed eating my meal, rather than last week, when I just tried to be optimistic and say I loved the gruel that I was force feeding myself. Lunch was standard, just a Tesco value cup a soup. My family were having egg and chips for their tea tonight. Finally, a family meal I could replicate with the food in my live below the line stash! Although the portion was still tiny compared to the rest of the family, I loved being able to sit down and enjoy eating the same foods as the people around me. For once this month I wasn't staring longingly at my brother's plates. 

I have to say the hunger is getting better each day. Actually, no, thats a lie, I'm still hungry all the time, but I'm learning to ignore it. My body seems to be getting used to lack of food, and although it still tells me it wants more, I am not watching the clock until my next meal. 

I realised that I haven't spoken much about the charity that I am doing this challenge for. Tearfund is a charity famous for its professional expertise in development, disaster response, disaster risk reduction and advocacy. They are committed to ensuring that as much of the money donated by their supporters as possible is spent in ways that really benefit the people who need it. For every pound that is given to the charity, approximately 91p goes straight to their emergency, development and humanitarian work. 8p will be spent raising funds and only 1p is spent on governance.

They do great works in so many areas, I couldn't possibly go into detail about all of them.  
Today I  will briefly touch on their work on food security and livelihoods. Finding a way to sustainably make a living is crucial for those who are trying to work their way out of poverty. One way Tearfund helps with this, is providing small micro finance loans. These can make a massive difference to a family's well-being. People are encouraged to start small businesses with these loans, perhaps selling chickens, eggs or hand made trinkets. The families are able to earn enough to support themselves and use the profit to help others in the community. Another way Tearfund helps is to work with the local churches to support them in the running of self help groups and income generation projects. 

BURUNDI

Burundi is one of the 4 potential countries I  may be visiting when volunteering with Tearfund in April. Between 1993 and 2008 it was in the midst of a civil war, a war is still impacting those in the country today. The population is growing and this is putting a massive strain on agricultural land, meaning hunger and poverty is a way of life for the majority of Burundi's people. Tearfund currently work with five Burundian partners to help communities work their way out of poverty.  Education is an essential element Tearfund's work in Burundi. By educating members of the community on things like, how to run a small business or how to make the most nutritious food out of the supplies available, Tearfund is providing aid which is sustainable. Such projects will help families to meet their food needs, avoid malnutrition, and boost their income long after the projects finish. Skills taught can be past from parent to child and from neighbour to neighbour. This is the best possible way to help people in poverty get out of it; helping them to to help themselves. 

If you would like to know more about Burundi as a country and Tearfund's works there please click here. 

I am really am passionate about the work that Tearfund is doing. This is why I am doing this crazy month of living below the line. I have pledged to raise £1500 but wouldn't it be amazing if I could raise even more than that. This money will go straight to helping Tearfund run it's global projects. Living below the line is such a challenge, it doesn't matter how little the amount is. Every little helps towards the fight against poverty.  

Thank you

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If you would like to sponsor me please click HERE to be taken to my just giving page.