By: Annabelle Lee
In a country like Singapore with a high cost of living, how can a mere $5 last you through the day? Poverty is an issue the world is facing. According to statisticbrain.com, 50% of the world population live on less than $2.50 a day.
There is a new campaign called "Singaporeans against Poverty" and it was formed by Caritas Singapore, the community arm of the Catholic Church in Singapore. Why $5 you asked? This is because according to the government data, the statistics shows that 105,000 households or 387,000 Singaporeans only have about $5 a day to spend on food and transport per family member. These people form the bottom 10 per cent of income-earning households earning an average income of $1,323.
To walk in the shoes of these underprivileged Singaporeans, radio personalities like Rosalyn Lee and Bobby Tonelli recorded their survival on $5 embedded in the hyperlinks.
As we are students, we only need to worry about food and transportation. I myself have decided to take on this challenge and hopefully will have some cash left over at the end of the day. This challenge will be slightly easy for us because we only need to manage the money for travelling to school, lunch and transport back home. I prepared a breakfast to take to school and it kept me full till about 12.15pm. My bus rides to school costs $0.80.The South Canteen in Republic Polytechnic sells a wide array of food and I decided on a bowl of dry fish ball noodles to take away. It costs only $2.50. At most stalls, you would have to pay an extra $0.20 for the container, but not this one. Scored! Lunch will hopefully keep me full till about 5 and then I will be on my way home for dinner. In total, I would have spent only:
Lunch ($2.50) + Transportation ($0.80x2) = $4.10 with $0.90 to spare!
Take on this challenge for at least a month because we will then know how tough it is on people who live on this sum of money for years. Make a difference. Save the spare cash and donate it to charity or help a family with their meals even for a day. You will realise that expenses in Singapore is very high and the low-income families are having a hard time getting by. It teaches us to be grateful for what we have.
Complete the challenge and comment on the post below to let us know how you fared! Good luck!
In a country like Singapore with a high cost of living, how can a mere $5 last you through the day? Poverty is an issue the world is facing. According to statisticbrain.com, 50% of the world population live on less than $2.50 a day.
There is a new campaign called "Singaporeans against Poverty" and it was formed by Caritas Singapore, the community arm of the Catholic Church in Singapore. Why $5 you asked? This is because according to the government data, the statistics shows that 105,000 households or 387,000 Singaporeans only have about $5 a day to spend on food and transport per family member. These people form the bottom 10 per cent of income-earning households earning an average income of $1,323.
To walk in the shoes of these underprivileged Singaporeans, radio personalities like Rosalyn Lee and Bobby Tonelli recorded their survival on $5 embedded in the hyperlinks.
As we are students, we only need to worry about food and transportation. I myself have decided to take on this challenge and hopefully will have some cash left over at the end of the day. This challenge will be slightly easy for us because we only need to manage the money for travelling to school, lunch and transport back home. I prepared a breakfast to take to school and it kept me full till about 12.15pm. My bus rides to school costs $0.80.The South Canteen in Republic Polytechnic sells a wide array of food and I decided on a bowl of dry fish ball noodles to take away. It costs only $2.50. At most stalls, you would have to pay an extra $0.20 for the container, but not this one. Scored! Lunch will hopefully keep me full till about 5 and then I will be on my way home for dinner. In total, I would have spent only:
Lunch ($2.50) + Transportation ($0.80x2) = $4.10 with $0.90 to spare!
Take on this challenge for at least a month because we will then know how tough it is on people who live on this sum of money for years. Make a difference. Save the spare cash and donate it to charity or help a family with their meals even for a day. You will realise that expenses in Singapore is very high and the low-income families are having a hard time getting by. It teaches us to be grateful for what we have.
Complete the challenge and comment on the post below to let us know how you fared! Good luck!