Engagement and funds flow from Poverty Challenge

Live Below the Line created a focal point for a nationwide discussion about extreme poverty. The 5 day challenge provided a structure for hundreds of kiwis to live below the extreme poverty line, spending just $2.25 a day for food and drink. The participants raised over $340,000 for 8 leading anti-poverty organizations, giving them a new funding stream while also raising awareness and enthusiasm.

Global Poverty Project’s NZ Country Director, Will Watterson co-ordinated the challenge. He says this new wave of committed citizens is the start of a wider movement to end extreme poverty.

“This is just the beginning of what we hope will grow into a global citizen's movement here in NZ, where everyday kiwis are connected to the greater issues going on globally and are equipped with the knowledge and tools to take action for a better world,” Watterson said. Watterson travelled to NYC to help organize the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on the 29th of September. The concert saw major acts like the Foo Fighters, the Black Keys and Neil Young play to an audience of thousands. The event helped secure over $1.3 Billion in funding to help the world’s poor.

Watterson wants to harness the momentum of the Global Citizen campaign, but he says the Live Below the Line challenge will also continue to expand in New Zealand. “Live Below The Line will definitely happen again in 2013, but we're already working hard on an amazing new tool in the fight against extreme poverty, called 'Global Citizen’,” said Watterson. “Global Citizen is a website and app that will revolve around a simple premise: that every person can play a role in realizing the end of extreme poverty.”

Watterson will be looking to build on the success of the Live Below the Line challenge by working closely with media, schools and celebrities to get even more people involved next year. This year high profile figures like Helen Clark, Jonah Lomu, Kayla Sharland and Anna Hutchinson all took part and endorsed the project.

For Watterson the Live Below the Line challenge is one of many tools the Global Poverty Project will be using to galvanize a movement of committed and informed citizens. He says the Global Citizen platform offers the flexibility for growth to meet the challenges of the future.

“We'll be using this tool in the coming years to advocate for more and better Aid, tax and trade justice, and further funding to fight crippling diseases like Polio,” said Watterson. “We're going to see an end to extreme poverty within our lifetime. This generation is going to make it happen."

The Live Below the Line challenge is hosting an “Encore Week” from the 15th-19th of October for latecomers to this project. The website will be accepting donations until the end of October.

Participants can sign up at www.livebelowtheline.com/nz

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