Kaycee Talevska will live below the poverty line next month to emphasise just how hard the experience is.
The 21-year-old Caroline Springs student has vowed to live off $2 a day for five days, from May 4-8, to raise money for schools in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste and raise awareness of the importance of education in the Third World.
“We do take for granted a lot of the things we have,” Ms Talevska says. “People in Cambodia [are] forced to work to survive and they don’t have the opportunities to do what we can.”
Ms Talevska says her bachelor of arts degree opened her eyes to the world and different ways of life. She says learning about different cultures and people made her more grateful for the opportunities here.
“People exactly the same as you, the same age as you, are living a life [of poverty] just because the opportunities differ. I could’ve been born in one of those countries.”
But she wasn’t. So Ms Talevska is ditching the food and “easily accessible” water to experience what it means to be a 21-year-old in a country ravaged by poverty.
“It’s more on a personal level because I will feel the hunger and I will feel the belly pain.”
So far, she’s raised more than $250 and is hoping to hit the $400 mark at least.
She’s hoping her experiences will resonate with her friends and others.
