It's That Time Again

Who remembers this photo?

That's right, it's time for me to start fundraising for Live Below the Line again. In case you've forgotten since last year, LBTL is a global challenge where participants commit to spending only $1.50 per day on food for a five day period. I'll be joining most of the US participants from April 27 to May 1.

Live Below the Line is dedicated to raising awareness of global poverty and to raising money for charities that fight it. The reasoning behind the $1.50 per day is that about 1.2 billion (that's BILLION) people in the world live in extreme poverty, and extreme poverty is defined as living on $1.50 per day or less. To make it more manageable for participants, we only have to limit our food and drink budget to $1.50. We don't have to include shelter, transportation, medical care, schooling, clothing, and everything else in that amount. Whew!

This year I am raising money for Concern Worldwide (US). This is a charity that was started in Ireland in 1968. It was born out of the same conflict in Biafur that triggered the beginning of Medicens Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders. Concern Worldwide helps over 6.5 million people in 27 of the world's poorest countries. They provide emergency aid, nutrition assistance, safe water, education, help for people with HIV/AIDS, and skills training and the like to enable people to become independent and support themselves. If you'd like more detailed information, check out their program page.

Concern Worldwide (US) also has 4 stars on Charity Navigator, with a 95.92 overall rating (out of 100). That's the highest rating I've ever seen on that site (although I don't pretend to have looked through every single charity they rate).

So who's with me? You can sponsor me HERE. My good friend Deen is also taking the challenge, and her page is here. She's already raised more money than me though. You should sponsor me first. >_>

If you really want to help, take the challenge yourself! I'd be happy to share tips from last year's experience. I'm definitely doing things differently this year.