Eat on two dollars a day for five days, raise funds and help end extreme poverty. Add a few hunger pains, repetitive spaghetti and canned tomato meals, and a caffeine or chocolate withdrawal itch, and that’s the Live Below The Line Challenge in a nutshell.
A group of 30 from the student leadership program ELEVATE at the University of Wollongong is taking on the challenge of living below the poverty line to raise funds and awareness of homelessness. Proceeds go directly to Oaktree, a charity that woaks to fight extreme poverty in Australia.
But many more experience this as a part of daily life. In the Illawarra, more than 1500 men, women and children are homeless. Poverty is an underlying cause of homelessness; fortunately, there are places providing assistance to those in need.
The Homeless Hub in Wollongong provides a range of assistance, such as a regular cooked breakfast, workshops and toiletry packs.