I'm Living Below the Line for CARE

As many of you already know, in January I spent 13 weeks in Tanzania, Africa. It was definitely the most amazing and inspiring time of my life! Since I have returned, I have been looking for more ways to help, even from here in the US. So...

From May 16-20, I'll be living on $1.50 worth of food and drink per day. At $1.50 per day living allowance is the US equivalent of the Extreme Poverty Line - and 1.4 billion people live below this line everyday.

I'm participating to develop a better understanding of the challenges faced by these 1.4 billion people and to raise funds for crucial anti-poverty initiatives.

I'm fundraising on behalf of Live Below the Line for CARE, whose work I strongly support.

Can you support my efforts by making a donation? You can make a secure online donation by clicking this link:

Caitlin's Fundraising Page for LBL 2011

And please let me know if you are interested in joining me and Live Below the Line in May!

Your support would be appreciated - thanks for getting behind me to Live Below the Line!

Thank you!!

10 Facts about Extreme Poverty

• There are 1.4 billion people still living in extreme poverty despite the fact that there is enough food to feed everyone one and a half times over.
• Half the world's population are women yet 70% of the world's poor are women. They work 2/3rd of the world's working hours and earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the world's property.
• 884 million people do not have access to clean drinking water leading to 2.2 million deaths per year - mostly children under 5. We spend globally $60 billion on bottled water this year - twice what the $30 billion the UN believes is needed to give everyone clean water.
• One child every 3.5 seconds dies from hunger and entirely preventable disease. This year American households will throw out millions worth of food - more than three times the budget of the World Food Program which has $5 billion to support the World's hungary.
• 75 million kids miss out on going to school, most of them girls.
• The end of extreme poverty can be achieved. The World Bank found the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has dropped from approximately 52% in 1982 to 25% today.
• In 2011, February 19, the US put forward a motion to make huge cuts in the year's budget. Poverty-fighting, cost-effective programs - which make up less than one percent of the US budget - were sharply cut.
• Key programs that fight AIDS, malaria and hunger were cut by 40%. Programs that promote long-term economic growth were chopped up to 30%.
• In 1982 half the world's population was living in extreme poverty. By 2005, that number was reduced to one quarter. It's feasible it could be reduced to zero if the world keeps its promises made under the 8 Millennium Development Goals and words to tackle the structural barriers that keep people poor.
• The UN estimates it would cost just $160 million a year to achieve the Millennium Development Goals while the US alone spent more that $8.5 trillion on bailing out failed banks and car companies.