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7days, 7dollars - social justice @ YouTube

17th December 2008

A few weeks when I was serving at Schoolies Week on the Gold Coast I had a chance to hang out with a legend by the name of Az Hamiliton, who works for Compassion as a youth communicator and speaker. (For those of you who don't know, Compassion is an awesome charity that is part of some amazing children-focused projects some of the world's neediest places - check them out at compassion.com.au).

At the moment, Az is right in the middle of a mind-blowing YouTube series entitled '7 days 7 dollars' - his attempt to live for a whole week on just $1 a day. It's reality TV with a social justice agenda! You can check out the promo clip below, or head to www.500dreads.com to watch the whole series.

Understanding the $1 a day stats

You've heard all those statistics about how many millions of people live on less than $1 a day right? (The most recent count I heard was 880 million people). Well most people assume that $1 in Africa or in $1 in the South Pacific buys a lot more than a $1 in Australia, but you're actually missing an important bit of information. In my first fulltime job, working for a charity called Opportunity International, I learnt something that rocked my world. Ready for it?

When they're working out how many people live on less than $1 a day, or less than $2 a day (2.1 billion people!) they use a thing called PPP, or Purchasing Power Parity. As a really REALLY simple definition, PPP means that when you hear stats about people living on less than $1 a day, they can purchase exactly the same goods and services that you could buy for $1 in Australia or the U.S. (Read that over and over again until it sinks in!)

So as you watch Az's clips, remember that around the world there's 880 million people going through the same thing every day - but unlike Az they don't have a choice.

Till next time,

Jarrod