1. 58 asia! OCTOBER 2005
“I first joined the 40Hour Famine
when I was 13 years old. Schools
had the chance to involve their
students through the World Vision
Australia 40Hour Famine because
going without food and or some-
thing that really matters to you
for 40 hours is a great way to
get a taste of what life’s like for
kids in some of the world’s poor-
est countries. Last year, some of
my mates and I decided we’d
have a go at it. Around 60 stu-
dents in our school took part and
together we raised over
A$2,000. I managed to raise
over A$500. This year, the
result was even better.”
I love charity work. When I
do something good for someone
other than myself, I feel so much
happier, especially when I see
them smiling, which motivates
me. This is my second year doing
the 40Hour Famine.
I chose the 40Hour Famine
because I have always had so
much sympathy for all those
starving kids and through the
40Hour Famine I can help them
wherever I am in the world. This
year, the money raised goes to
Tanzania and Mozambique where
many families get only one meal a
day, usually a small bowl of rice
or maize each.
While I was doing the 40Hour
Famine, I learnt how how impor-
tant food is to our bodies.
40 hours without food may
seem like a long time to some of
us, but to many people living in
Third World countries, 40 hours
isn’t that long. In fact, they live
like that all the time.
asia! OCTOBER 2005 59
life
BY CHIA MING CHIEN
it: no food, no technology and work that they
have to do. They don’t get entertainment to keep
their minds off hunger, so I won’t.
Speaking of their work, they have to get up
really early each morning to go fill up buckets of
water—they have to walk God only knows how
many kilometres. No matter how tired and hun-
gry they are, they still do it. This is why I will
not retire from all my physical activity either. I
don’t think I’ll get up extra early because it’s
my weekend and I enjoy sleeping in but I won’t
sleep all day long. I’ll go for a walk and help out
around the house. I have thought seriously about
how much physical activity I do because I do not
want to hurt myself by doing too much.
So as I take my last spoon of oats, I feel a
little nervous and scared that something bad
might happen during my fast, though all I can do
is hope for the best on my wonderful journey, or
should I say, hungry and bored experience. Since
I am starting my famine on a school morning, I’ll
be starting my “no technology fast” nine-and-
a-half hours after the famine—when I get back
from school.
11:42am It’s lunchtime at school, but not for
me. Surprisingly, I am not that hungry yet. I
just drank a big gulp of water, which filled
me up a little, so I feel better.
1:45pm The second lunch has passed and
hunger started to kick in at about 12:05 in
Science class, so I got a drink and felt bet-
ter. At the moment though, I am still not
starving like I have been before, but I do feel
a little tired and light-headed. I felt like giv-
ing up when I saw people eating at lunch, but
I know that I must go, and I cannot break my
promise to everyone. Although I feel like
quitting, I will never, because I will have
never let myself give up at anything that I
have started.
I think I felt like quitting because I was
hungry and still have a long time to go, but
when I see a fair bit of that time will be
spent asleep, where I don’t feel anything, it
doesn’t seem so bad. It’s just the tiresome
hours where I stay awake waiting for time to
pass that I dread.
3:10pm School’s finished now and by the
time I arrive home, there’ll be no technology for
me. I’m planning on using my walking stick so I
can rest on it when I go for my exercise walk
because I feel kind of tired now and I cannot
imagine how I’ll feel tomorrow.
I am so surprised because I still don’t feel
that hungry, though I could still do with some
food. I am drinking water, which is probably fill-
ing me.
It hasn’t been long since I started the “no
technology” but I know that I am going to be so
bored. I just came back from a walk and I feel
like watching the TV! Oh well!
Saturday August 12/05
Day 2 of No Eating and No Technology. Woke up
this morning and when I stood up, I felt so dizzy,
probably because I’d been sleeping for so long. I
did some sit ups and got ready to go out to the
Marreeba markets. At the Markets, I was hun-
gry and felt like eating, especially when Mum
got a char siew pau (meat dumpling) and curry
puff! She got me one too, for when I can eat.
During shopping for groceries I got so many
cravings! I am so afraid when I finish this
famine, I will pig out and make myself feel sick
and it’s also not good to eat lots of heavy stuff
after a fast. I guess that is where my patience
and self-control will have to come in.
When I got home, I did some cooking… made
Mum a poppy-seed cake and shortbread for
Werner (he gives me a lift down to school each
day) to say thanks and four scones for when I
can eat. It is so tempting to eat some nuts,
CHARITY
Sky High: Sky Chia raises the hopes of
Oneof
Power
Believing in the
To demonstrate solidarity with the starving children of Mozambique
and Tanzania, SKY CHIA went on a fast and lived to write this report.
PHOTOFROMCHIAMINGCHIEN
PHOTOFROMWORLDVISION
My Journal
Friday August 11/05
Today the 40hour Famine starts. I started at 7:30am.
I decided a while ago that when I do the “Food Fast” (only
liquids allowed), I am also going to do the “No Technology
Fast” (no TV, radio, stereo, telephone, computer, electronic
games). Although we had a choice of doing one or the other I
wanted to do both for a few reasons.
I think it’d be a bigger challenge because I won’t have a
telly to watch or the X-Box to play with to keep my mind off
the hunger. But I chose to do it like this mostly because I
want my famine to be as much like the kids of Africa have

2. World Vision Australia helps over 10 million people every year. As well as providing relief in
emergency situations, they work on long-term community development projects that address the
causes of poverty and help people move towards self-sufficiency.
80 per cent of World Vision Australia income was spent on charitable activity of which:
n 78.9 per cent on International Development Aid and Relief
n 0.3 per cent on indigenous and other local projects
n 0.8 per cent on Community Education
n 10.8 per cent was invested in fundraising to attract more support
n 8.3 per cent was spent on administration and management
n 0.9 per cent was spent on commercial activities such as the Walkabout Gallery, and Consulting
Services Unit serving government and international donors
Source: www.worldvision.com.au
is to encourage more people to take part in char-
ity work. Just to see people go out of their way
to help others would be one of the greatest
things that could happen. As it is said, if we all
help a little bit more, there would be less work
and more results. So, I guess the best lesson I
learnt is that it’s true: Even one person can
make a difference.
And when we add it all up, we’re in for a
wonderful surprise.
BY JAMES SEE
60 asia! OCTOBER 2005
CHARITY
life
which I love, and a scone. I can eat at 11:30pm
tonight and I am happy and excited, though I am
afraid I’ll be asleep. I don’t mind waiting till
tomorrow morning, but I think if I do that, I’ll
have a huge binge. So if I eat something tonight, I
may not eat as much tomorrow.
It’s just past 9pm and I am lying in bed, so
tired. I have about two-and-a-half hours to go but
I don’t think I’ll be awake because I feel quite
exhausted. At the moment, if I was allowed to eat
but felt the way I do, I don’t think I would pig out
because I just don’t have enough energy to do
that, hopefully it’ll be like that tomorrow. I really
don’t want to pig out and get sick.
It really sucks not being able to eat and watch
the telly and I’m regretting doing them at the
same time. I am so bored without it… I really
crave watching cartoons.
I love watching the telly and eating at the same
time and that’s what I want to do on my first meal
in 40 hours, but I started the “no technology” later
so I can’t eat and watch TV unless I wait till the
morning.
Later on that night…
I couldn’t sleep too well and woke up a few
times so I checked with Mum, who also wasn’t
sleeping, what the time was, and it was 12.15am!
I could eat! So I got up and had half a curry puff,
which wasn’t that good and some frozen fruit and
other nibblies. My stomach felt really sick after
eating. Maybe it was because the solid food was
a bit too much for me to handle, or maybe it was
the food kind of curdling. Anyway, I didn’t mind
not eating in front of the telly, I didn’t even
think about it because I enjoyed sharing my first
meal with Mum. I have to admit, it wasn’t that
exciting, I kinda wish I hadn’t eaten the curry
puff because it wasn’t nice.
I can’t wait till morning when I can finally
watch telly.
Sunday 8.20am
Woke up and the whole 40 Hour Famine was
over. I had breakfast in front of the TV like I had
been dreaming of doing.
Now it’s over… my next dream.
Next year I plan on taking part in the 40Hour
Famine again. I am really excited about it
because I’ll be 15 years old and finally qualify to
apply for the 40Hour Famine Youth Ambassador
programme. It gives us a once-in-a-lifetime
chance to actually travel to super poor countries.
Only a few people are chosen to take part, and
hopefully, I’ll be one of them. This will be a dream
come true.
I’ve learnt that national boundaries don’t pre-
vent people from getting together to help each
other. The Internet sure helps. And I guess one of
the best things I’ve learnt from this whole experi-
ence was that there are a lot more caring people in
this world than I could’ve imagined. The friends and
friends-of-friends who responded to my request
(from Singapore, the US and Australia) and the
amounts they gave were amazing. There’s no
telling how generous people are! I had a target of
A$250 this year and received over A$3,000! (That
feeds over 450 children for one month. Every
A$40 raised helped feed six hungry kids for a
month). I’ve now learnt not to be so afraid to ask
for donations and not to underestimate how willing
people are to help, especially if they see we are
committed.
I read somewhere that even one person can
make a difference and I plan on meeting other peo-
ple who think the same way, so we can work
together. Living in Australia has taught me a lot
about looking out for others.
My vision for making the world a better place
KATRINA RELIEF DONORS
PHOTOFROMWORLDVISION
*Donated through
the Hilton
foundation,
of which neither
Paris Hilton (right)
nor her parents have
management
responsibility
GETTYIM-
ALT.TYPE/REUTERS
ALT.TYPE/REUTERS
From left: Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates
N A M E W H O DONATED & COMMITTED
Michael Bloomberg Mayor of New York City Undisclosed
Warren Buffet Billionaire investor Undisclosed
Mark Cuban Owner of Dallas Mavericks pro basketball team Undisclosed
Mr & Mrs Michael Dell Founder of Dell Inc & wife $5 million
Mr & Mrs Bill Gates Co-founder of Microsoft & wife $3 million
Paris Hilton* Heiress of Hilton empire $6 million
Robert McNair Owner of Houston Football Team $1 million
Pierre Omidyar Co-founder of eBay $1 to $1 match on donations
from Omidyar.net members
Ross Perot Software billionaire & former US Undisclosed
presidential candidate
Donald Trump Developer and casino owner Sent cases of Trump
water to victims
Walton family Majority shareholder of Wal-Mart $15 million
Oprah Winfrey Talk show host $1 million
GETTYIMAGES
Charity takes many shapes: In Australia, Sky Chia fasted for Third World children,
in the US Paris Hilton offers to pose naked for AIDS victims. In New Orleans, many
adopted more conventional means They gave money, huge sums of it.
Different strokes for different folks