Learning from five days of poverty

Shelina Janmohamed takes the Unicef challenge to live on Dh5.50 a day for a week

Our news coverage is filled with stories of heartbreaking poverty. Without these stories we would not be able to comprehend the level of deprivation beyond our front doors. But so prevalent is this use of imagery, and we appear to be irresistibly drawn to watching its horror, that it becomes gratuitous.

These stories of poverty feed our sense of righteous condemnation. But to condemn is easy. What’s harder is to know what it really feels like. And hardest of all is to avoid being patronising while being consistently motivated to address not just its symptoms but, more importantly, to work on its structural causes.

Our day to day lives are peppered with small luxuries we don’t even notice. A freshly brewed cappuccino is for me one of the great pleasures in life. But the price tag – anywhere upwards from Dh20 – though small compared to other more expensive luxuries might be worth more than we realise. For some, a quick knock-back coffee is equivalent to a day’s, even a week’s consumption.

Unicef has been working on a Living Below The Line campaign which challenges people to live on just $1.50 (Dh5.5) per day for five days to cover all food and drink. For that price participants have to feed themselves breakfast, lunch and dinner. It suddenly feels like that one cup of coffee needs to go a long way.

As a woman, the campaign feels particularly eye-opening. Around the world, the challenge of managing food affects women disproportionately as women do most of the shopping, cooking and feeding, and women are also disproportionately affected by poverty.

Nearly half of the world’s population lives on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live on less than $1.25. Poverty is present in every society, and we may be closer to those suffering than we realise. We may walk past them on the street. We may talk to them every day. In the most recent figures on poverty, nearly 20 per cent of the UAE was found to be below the poverty line.

So, I’ve signed up to Live Below The Line for five days. I believe it’s something we should all try. I want to understand first-hand the concrete challenges of poverty, rather than just gawping at pictures of poverty. However, now I’ve committed myself to the campaign and actually thought about the effect of having only Dh27.50 for all my food for five days, I’m terrified. I believe that’s a good thing. We have become numb to poverty, and we should be emotional about it. My cappuccino would blow that budget within five minutes. In fact, any kind of coffee or tea is far too expensive, so no luxuries or treats.

I’ve realised the only way to achieve this is by meticulous planning. This highlights immediately that even the activity of food shopping, which is normally one of ease, even pleasure, for those in poverty can be stressful and time consuming. Next I realise that the staples of a balanced diet cannot be taken for granted: meat, chicken and fish for example are far too expensive. And the economies of buying in bulk cannot be taken advantage of if you just don’t have the capital at your disposal. At the moment, I’ll be living on bread and butter sandwiches with the odd bowl of soup.

Poverty is not something to be gawped at, or mourned over. We need to be committed long- term in tackling a global scourge whose cure is within our grasp. Experiencing just five days of poverty might be the trigger we need.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www.spirit21.co.uk