Thank You!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who supported and donated to my Live Below the Line campaign. Your support will help make malaria no more!

DAY 5 - Live Below The Line Challenge

Thank you!!!

Day 5 - I have completed the Live Below the Line challenge and have so far raised nearly £300 for Malaria No More UK so all the hunger, tiredness and dizziness was well worth it!!!  Thank you for everyone's overwhelming support over the last 5 days. My week has become less about what I was eating/drinking and more about the lack of life choices and the isolation it caused. It made me realise how fortunate I am but sadly from tomorrow 1.2 million people will continue living on just £1 a day for everything (health, education, food, transport etc). It's hard to imagine. If you would like to donate please visit https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/shani Thank you! ‪

DAY 4 - Live Below The Line Challenge

Dinner- egg friend rice with frozen peas and cabbage

Lunch - plain pasta and tomato sauce

Breakfast - 30g plain porridge

Today I had plain porridge again for breakfast (getting quite sick of it now), plain pasta and tomato sauce for lunch and egg fried rice for dinner which I was thinking about since 3pm this afternoon! Last day of the challenge tomorrow but sadly not for the 1.2 billion (nearly 20 times the population of the UK) who live on less than £1 a day for everything (health, transport, housing, food, education) not just food and drink. It's hard to imagine. I really do hope that one day soon we achieve the Millennium Development Goal no 1 to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. Currently 1 in 8 remain hungry. Hats off to all the other 25,000 people round the world you have taken up the challenge this week. It's been tough but certainly worth every second of it!

Millennium Development Goal 1 - Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Live below the Line Restless Development Video

A good short video from Restless Development which puts it into perspective.

DAY 3 - Live Below The Line Challenge

Dinner - plain pasta and tomato sauce

Day 3 - half way there now Today's menu included a small amount of porridge again for breakfast, leftover chapati and baked beans for lunch and plain pasta and tomato sauce for dinner. I have felt very tired again today and have had bad headaches however I keep thinking how I am helping to fight global poverty and end child deaths from malaria which makes it all worth it. If you would like to sponsor me to live below the line on £1 a day please visit my page by following this link ‪#‎belowtheline‬ https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/shani

DAY 2 - Live Below The Line Challenge

Dinner - homemade chapatis and baked beans

Today's menu has consisted of a very minuscule amount of porridge for breakfast, leftover spanish omelette for lunch (from yesterday) and homemade chapatis and baked beans for dinner which I am very happy to say was my first filling meal in the last two days! The others have only touched the sides and left me feeling hungry a couple of hours later. Also happy to have been taught how to make chapatis by my host family in Tanzania last year. Delicious! How I have missed them. Still feeling very tired and drained but focusing on all the good things the money raised will help to achieve. When living on a £1 a day its interesting how you don't waste even a scrap of food and how your sense of smell becomes a lot stronger. Only 3 more days to go! Thanks for all the support. https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/shani

Some Reasons Why I am Taking up the Live Below the Line Challenge...

Millennium Development Goal no 6 - combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and other diseases

After volunteering in Tanzania last year with ICS I learnt how Malaria can affect a whole family. The costs of medicine even I found to be expensive so I could see how financially it can put a whole family at risk if one child needs urgent medical treatment and assistance. Families who already are living in poverty have to skip meals to be able to pay for medicine and very rarely are able to recover so become stuck in a trap with no means of escape.

DAY 1 - Live Below The Line Challenge

Breakfast - 30g Porridge

Lunch - Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

Dinner - Potato Omelette

The first day has certainly been challenging. I have felt hungry, very tired and weak and difficult to concentrate. I am trying to imagine eating this much and then having to walk 6km to fetch water or go without one of the meals to pay for medicine for a sick child. I am starting to realise just how difficult it can be for billions of people around the world who live below the poverty line every day. It is a very scary thought! Thanks for all the support and donations so far (£280). It is certainly helping me to keep going. There is still time if you would like to donate at https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/shani

Live Below The Line Challenge Begins!!!

My food budget

Tomorrow I begin the Live Below The Line Challenge to eat and drink on £1 a day for 5 days.  The above picture shows the food I have brought for the challenge which is very basic. Every morning for breakfast I will have porridge and for lunch/dinner I will be cooking meals including egg fried rice, sweet potato curry and homemade chapati (thanks to my Tanzanian host family for teaching me) and baked beans. I am looking forward to the challenge but know it will be difficult but also an interesting experience. So far I have managed to raise an amazing £235 for Malaria No More and collectively the challenge in the UK has so far raised £254,848! :-)

Live Below the Line 2014

I will be taking up the Live Below the Line challenge from 28th April - 2nd May. I will have just £1 a day to spend on food and drink to raise awareness of the 1.2 billion people around the world who live below the poverty line everyday. I have decided to support and raise money for the Malaria No More UK charity. After living in Africa last year I learnt that it is a preventable disease that shockingly claims the life of one child every minute and is a leading cause of poverty in Africa. Just £5 can buy a mosquito net which can prevent the disease from spreading. Malaria costs Africa £8 billion a year/some families up to one quarter of their annual income. We can help end this. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my donation page https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/shani Just £5 can save a child's life. Thank you!

Volunteer Video

One of our fellow volunteers has made a brilliant video of our time in Dar es Salaam. It beautifully captures the culture that we learnt about, the way we lived and the project we undertook. It shows how a positive approach can also be very powerful. I hope you enjoy watching it.

Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy

Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy (MNMA) was our third institution located in beautiful Kigamboni. This University was the furthest away taking some of us us between 3-6 hours each way. This was due to the different transport methods we had to take (i.e. walking, buses and ferry) and the awful traffic jams especially during rush hour. It is quicker to take the ferry across the harbour than it is to drive around the coast. We taught several classes here but with less response and numbers of students than we would have liked. However, as we had such great success at the other two institutions we continued to teach and worked with some lovely students who were very passionate and driven. From what we have seen, Tanzania has some very promising youths coming through their education system so it is vital they are given full support before entering the job market to ensure they are fully prepared.

Kigamboni Ferry

The view of Posta from our classroom window

Some of our students at MNMA

Restless Development Global Strategy 2011-215

If you would like to find out more about Restless Development and their aims please watch this video...

Fellow Volunteer Blogs

You can visit the blogs of fellow UK volunteers from the same project by following the links below:

http://priyanicole.tumblr.com/

http://viewfromdar.blog.com/

http://jessicalear.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/social-commentary-living-in-dar/

Very interesting reads and great pictures!

The Perfect Employee

During our introductory skills sessions we taught students the difference between hard and soft skills. We divided the students into groups and gave them a drawing of a perfect employee. Their task was to think of as many hard and soft skills as possible (e.g. good team player, trustworthy, flexible, adaptable, IT literate).

Students from The Mwalimu Nyerere Memorial Academy presenting to the class

We then got the students to think about how and where they can gain these types of skills. We taught the students that you can gain soft skills anywhere from playing football with your local team to joining your church or community group. We encouraged students to actively look for and join student clubs, sports teams etc so that they could add interests to their CV's to make them look unique/interesting and most importantly stand out from the crowd. It also got them to think about what skills and activities they could add to their CV's which they may not have thought of previously.

Similarly to the UK there are many university graduates in Tanzania but very few employment opportunities. Most jobs are looking for candidates who have 5+ years experience. Therefore, we explained to the students that best way to become 'employable' is to gain as much experience as they can through work experience, internships and volunteering. This could be as simple as helping to serve customers at a relatives shop or helping with water service in their local community.