Two events in Singapore last month had teens experience poverty firsthand. At SJI International's Action for Poverty Week, 90 students lived on $2/day for meals for 5 days to gain understanding of extreme poverty. Meanwhile, about 1,000 teens from over 60 schools participated in World Vision's 30-Hour Famine Camp, abstaining from food. The camps aimed to raise awareness and funds for poverty alleviation projects in countries like Vietnam and India. Students learned about the challenges of poverty from peers in Cambodia and Mongolia and gained a new perspective on the unequal global distribution of resources and food.

1. oing hungry is not a holiday idea
most students would readily take
to.
However at two events last
month, some teens plucked up the courage
to take part in “poverty” projects. Some
subsisted on $2 a day and others abstained
from solid food for 30 hours. As part of
their service learning projects and for some,
personal experience, they chose to share
the plight of 1.2 billion people worldwide
who live in extreme poverty.
Students from St Joseph’s Institution (SJI)
International turned the first week of last
month into Action For Poverty Week,
during which students lived on $2 a day
for five days in a bid to raise $4,000. The
money will go towards building a classroom
for The Bamboo School, an orphanage in
rural Thailand. Together with other
fund-raising efforts during the week, the
students managed to raise $4,150.
Meanwhile, about 1,000 young people
from more than 60 schools signed up for
World Vision’s 30-Hour Famine Camp. During
the camp, held at Anglo-Chinese School
(Barker Road), they abstained from solid food.
The international advocacy group’s event
brought to the fore global
poverty-awareness. For a $45 fee, the camp
allowed teens to participate in a series of
activities centred on the issue of poverty.
The money collected for the event went
towards funding food security projects run
by World Vision in countries such as
Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia and India. The
event raised about $42,000.
30-HOUR FAMINE
Campers such as Wong Tun Hui, from Pei
Hwa Secondary School, endured jibes from
friends for “paying money to starve”.
“That’s what they say, but the money
goes to charity and it’s also a new
experience for me,” said the 15-year-old.
Others, including 15-year-old Joel Chin,
were curious about how their counterparts
in countries endure poverty. “My peers
and I have been greatly blessed,” said
the student of Anglo-Chinese School
(Barker Road).
“My allowance per week is about $50.
This experience of being placed in a
situation where money could not help us
G
30-Hour Famine Camp: Seventeen-year-old
Batbaatar, a former street urchin who ran away
from home to escape an abusive stepfather, once
had to beg on the streets to survive. He told
participants how he eventually overcame the
challenges of poverty with the help of the World
Vision Mongolia child development and
protection programme.
ST DESIGN JASTER NGUI
PHOTOS DESMOND FOO, WORLD VISION SINGAPORE, COURTESY OF YIP WENG SENG
out... the sense of hopelessness made real
the experience of poverty for us,” he said.
During the camp, students heard about
the challenges of poverty from their peers
from Cambodia and Mongolia. For them,
getting food meant either trudging long
distances from the village to town, or
begging for scraps on the street.
ACTION FOR POVERTY WEEK
When Ms Joanna Oey, 18, heard about the
online poverty awareness campaign Live
Below The Line, from a friend overseas, she
felt the experience would enlighten her peers.
Inspired, the student from SJI
International organised a similar event, also
called Live Below The Line, during her
school’s Action For Poverty Week, getting
90 of her schoolmates to subsist on $2 (or
US$1.50) a day for meals for five days.
The amount is the globally accepted
figure used to define extreme poverty.
To survive on that amount, she and her
peers had to shop for meals on a $10
grocery budget, which afforded them
mostly staples such as bread and potatoes.
“All of us know how to be charitable but
we don’t know what it’s like to be poor,”
she pointed out.
Their understanding of world food issues
deepened during World At Lunch, another
event held the same week, when about 170
students were randomly split into groups that
were served typical meals of people residing
in “first world” or “third world” countries.
Each student paid $4 each for a meal
coupon. Those seated at “first world”
tables, dined on sushi, veal sausage and
mash, chicken burgers, fries and soft drink
floats. The rest, a majority, were served
“third world” meals of curry vegetables,
bread scraps and plain rice.
The event’s point? That the world’s food
supply, though ample for everyone, is
unequally distributed between first and
third world societies. That, together with
other reasons such as low income and lack
of employment opportunities, are why people
in developing countries remain hungry.
SJI International student Rameez
Ramsudeen, 17, felt the experience showed
him and his peers “a little bit of what it is
like” for the poor in developing countries.
For them, poverty is a vicious circle they are
locked in because of the interconnected
causes including overpopulation, lack of
access to education and employment
opportunities and unequal global
distribution of resources.
Just donating money is not enough,
pointed out student Ally Koh, who is also
from SJI International. It does not stir empathy,
provoke action or understanding of the
cause, like a little personal sacrifice does.
“There’s no point in donating money if
you don’t understand what you’re donating
for. Even if you read up, you won’t feel the
impact as when you’re doing it,” said the
17-year-old.
English teacher Martin Walsh, 49, who
leads several of SJI International’s service
learning projects, including Action For
Poverty Week, said: ”The idea is that they
raise money purposefully and not just get
money out of their banks.”
sherquek@sph.com.sg
During SJI International’s Action For Poverty Week, students who took part in the World At
Lunch activity were randomly split into groups that were served typical meals of people
residing in “first world” (top) or “third world” (above) countries. This allowed them to
experience the unequal distribution of food supplies between first- and third-world societies.
Hungry
INDEPTH
9
MONDAY, JULY 1, 2013 THE STRAITS TIMESTHE STRAITS TIMES MONDAY, JULY 1, 2013INDEPTH
8
for the
experience
Teens choose to experience
poverty first-hand in
a bid to understand
world food issues.
SHERYL QUEK reports
7 FACTS ABOUT POVERTY
The amount set by the World Bank as the International Extreme
Poverty Line in 2005 was US$1.25 (S$1.60) a day. It represents the
income of someone living in extreme poverty. It has to cover
necessities such as health, housing, transport, food and education.
Factoring in inflation, this amount is about US$1.50 a day now.
 Although the situation has improved, with extreme poverty
declining in many countries, the World Bank estimates there will
still be 970 million people living on US$1.25 a day by 2015.
 The world’s poorest people are now concentrated most heavily
in Sub-Saharan Africa, which includes countries such as Rwanda,
Botswana and Somalia.
 About 850 million people, or nearly 15 per cent of the global
population, are estimated to be undernourished. They mostly live in
places such as Cambodia, Bangladesh and Latin America.
 Food security is defined as having access to sufficient safe and
nutritious food at all times to maintain a healthy and active life.
Barriers to access – physical and economic – are major contributing
causes to hunger and malnutrition.
 Malnutrition increases the risk of disease and early death. Severe
malnutrition can cause irreversible brain damage from iodine
deficiency.
 Up to 98 per cent of the world’s hungry live in developing
countries.
#30HOURFAMINE
Hungry participants of the 30-hour famine camp tweeted their
hearts out to lift their spirits, causing the topic #30hourfamine to
trend over June 14 and 15. Here are some of the messages they
served up:
JUNE 14
@vannvania
This is just like the Hunger Games minus the forest, weapons and
attractive tributes. Plus a bunch of weird teenagers. Haha.
@heartpiggys
To people who post pictures of food I’m not gonna like your post.
@jjbecks
I hope this doesn’t result in cannibalism.
@ben10_bento
I’m avoiding Instagram now because of food pictures.
@_kungjiahui
I’m not hungry, it’s just an illusion.
@_TiMoThY_
Chocolate milk suddenly tastes like chicken rice.
JUNE 15
@ZoeTxq_
Hungry people equals angry people.
@SeraphinaTan_
Shouldn’t food be in the mouth now? Where are you? We are not
playing hide and seek.
@twasthnight
I can’t believe I did not eat for 30 hours.
@MadeleineMeidy
DOWN TO THE LAST HOUR I’M SO PROUD OF YOU STOMACH
*rubbing my big growling stomach*.
SOURCES WWW.UN.ORG/MILLENNIUMGOALS/POVERTY.SHTML, WWW.WORLDHUNGER.ORG,
WWW.LIVEBELOWTHELINE.COM, WWW.WORLDBANK.ORG,
HTTP://BLOGS.WSJ.COM/ECONOMICS/2013/04/17/WHERE-THE-WORLDS-POOREST-PEOPLE-LIVE,
WWW.WFP.ORG/FOOD-SECURITY, WWW.WFP.ORG/HUNGER/STATS
THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAM USA SAYS
HUNGER IS “THE WORLD’S GREATEST
SOLVABLE PROBLEM”. WHAT DO YOU
THINK ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO
TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Post your views to www.facebook.com/innies.
30-Hour Famine Camp: On the first day of the camp, participants were split into teams
to play a game in which they had to “harvest” crops and “rear” animals for trade. The
game aimed to demonstrate the inequality of food production and distribution around
the world.