`Barefoot Bishop’ to live on $2.25 a day for TEAR Fund

The Bishop of Wellington Justin Duckworth has taken TEAR Fund’s dare to live on just $2.25 a day for all his food and drink for five days. The charismatic ‘barefoot’ Otaki-based bishop has joined several other high profile Kiwis, such as band members of Avalanche City, who are taking part in the Live Below the Line challenge this week from September 24-28.

“In today's world, I believe extreme poverty and inequality are unjustifiable and unfair, and that’s why I am taking part. Live Below the Line demonstrates the problem in a concrete way, while raising money to address the problem,” said Bishop Duckworth.

“As a family, we took part last year, and it was amazing how much time we spent thinking about food. It made us realise how much we take our abundance of food for granted. Because Live Below the Line is over five days, it connects us in solidarity with the poor. It is no easy task as you wrestle with what you are going to put on the plate every day. It is humbling to realise that this is the daily reality for more than 1.4bn people in our world living in extreme poverty.”

Participants in the challenge raise money for their chosen organisation through an online fundraising page. Money raised from Live Below the Line for TEAR Fund, will go towards TEAR Fund’s Share and Care project, which helps rescue girls caught up in the human trafficking trade in Nepal and to provide basic survival needs for children in India and Ethiopia.
On average between 7,000 and 9,000 young girls aged as young as nine, are trafficked every year in Nepal. Live Below the Line is organised by Global Poverty Project and has already been runs in the US, UK and Australia. Several other New Zealand aid agencies are also taking part in the challenge.

For more information, go to livebelowtheline.com/nz-tearfund or
to support Justin, go to livebelowtheline.com/me/justinduckworth.


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