24 hr famine

People around the world living poverty have to experience going to bed with an empty stomach and waking with the slim hope of finding scraps for breakfast to ease their hunger. If 24 hours were this bad, how much more the lives of others? Through this 24 hr famine camp I saw the world and Singapore in a much more different light. How people in third world countries had to live their lives, and the hardships of the migrant workers here in Singapore. We got to experience the desperation people had when digging through trash bins looking for food, the pain of waking up with an empty stomach and the difficulties people living in poverty faced in their everyday lives.

I realised how blessed I was to get to fill my stomach everyday even though perhaps the canteen food became a routine and was unappetizing and lacked variation, or even to have an education even though it was stressful and tiring.

I saw pictures of children in third world countries and heard stories of people who would be so happy just to get the left overs from people's plates or from getting the simplest of food like a bar of chocolate.

I saw how people did not even have a proper home to live in, but were so happy and joyful to be able to live in makeshift homes in unused concrete pipes.

I think this experience was both meaningful and eye opening. It helped me be more appreciative of what I have and helped me learn to be more compassionate. Whenever I complain again I will always think twice again, a single thought running through my mind "what about them?".