This week I have committed to do something a little crazy... eat on $1.50 a day for 5 days. This is weird right? Every time I tell someone they give me the look of: girl you are weird! Of course when I told my family, I am sure they thought to themselves, 'there goes Kasse, always talking about saving the world'. It might be weird but I absolutely love doing things to raise awareness, understand others and help people! Live Below the Line is right up my alley because it is helping me to understand what it is like for the 1.4 Billion people around the world who live on $1.50 a day for food, water, medicine and anything they might need!
I can sum up my experience of the last three days in three words: I AM HUNGRY!!! Seriously, I am so hungry! But here's the thing, I am actually able to eat a lot of food (well a lot of top raman, eggs, beans and rice)! I am just hungry because I am constantly thinking about food and what I am going to eat and how much it is going to cost and when my next meal is going to be. For the last 3 days all I have thought about is how hungry I am and how much I want to eat. Food, food, food is constantly on my brain! I realized yesterday that that must be what it is like for people who live in extreme poverty. They must really think about food and what they are going to eat at every moment of the day.
I have grown up in a very fortunate lifestyle and my parents have always been capable of providing me with all the essentials of living and so much more. I don't think there is a single night my whole life where I have gone to sleep hungry and not been able to do anything about it. This experience has opened my eyes just a little to what it would be like going to sleep hungry and not being able to afford what you need. I cannot stop thinking about what it would be like to be a mother and know I can't provide food and water and the basic necessities for my children. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a mother or a sister or a friend and watch the people around me starve while feeling the pain of starvation as well. I cannot imagine how it would feel to have no control over whether I eat or not that day. Despite my experience this week of living on $1.50 a day, I cannot even begin to imagine what it would actually be like to live in Extreme Poverty.
Live Below the Line has taught me to be extremely grateful for the lifestyle I have grown up in and to live in a country where people have access to clean water and help. More importantly it has taught me the great need to help those less fortunate who are in need. It has reinforced my life goal to Save the World!
If you are interested in sponsoring me and helping the Happy Hearts Fund build schools for children where natural disasters have struck please donate to my page at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/kasseann
