By Tim Saunders on
Hugh Jackman has vowed to give up coffee and sugar for a new charity campaign that encourages people to try and live on £1 a week to raise awareness of the 1.4 billion people around the world who live below the poverty line.
The star was spotted at a special event for the Global Poverty Project's Live Below The Line campaign in London on Monday.
“I will be going without certain things,” he said, but added he cannot take part in the full challenge of living on £1 because he will be in the middle of an acting job during Live Below The Line week. "And actually I don’t mind saying I’m not doing it, because for people who want to do the challenge I’m totally thrilled and supportive of it and I think it’s fantastic and there’s 50,000 people around the world doing it.
“But I want to encourage people like me, who can’t for whatever reason, to do something symbolic. You can join up and do it for one day.
“I’m going to give up my computer for a week, which actually secretly I kind of like, that’s not so hard for me.
“So I am going to do two things which are really bad for me which is give up coffee, because I’m an addict and I’m going to give up sugar as I’m an addict.”
According to the campaign’s organizers, "the week of Live Below the Line is a week like no other. From 2-6 May, thousands of people across the UK will spend just £1 each day on food, and use their daily experiences to bring extreme poverty to the centre of conversation in homes and workplaces. We’ll all be challenged, we’ll struggle without caffeine, and have a faint feeling of being not quite full for the whole week. We’ll pool money with housemates, colleagues or family to make that one pound stretch just a little further…
“We’ll do all of this because whilst we choose to struggle to Live Below the Line for one week, there are 1.4 billion people who have no choice other than to do it every day.”
The campaign aims to support its partners at The Salvation Army, Christian Aid, Restless Development, Think Global and RESULTS UK.
To find out more about the campaign, click here.
Copyright © 2011 Look to the Stars
