To help people like Nida we will be eating a simple diet of rice and beans for 5 days (18th-22nd March)
After a long day at work, a decent dinner is the least that most of us expect. But for Nida, arriving home after an 11 hour day just means more work.
Nida lives in Pakistan. With her husband too ill to work, it is down to her and her 14-year-old daughter to support the family. So, every day, Nida sets off at 6am to walk over an hour to clean all day at a school. When she gets home, at around 5pm, she catches up on her own jobs – cooking, washing and more cleaning. This is all despite Nida not being well herself.
In spite of how hard she works, dinner is a simple affair: bread with lentils or vegetables. This and a small breakfast are the only meals Nida and her family will eat all day. ‘I cannot afford clothes, school fees and good food for my children,’ she says.
But hope is coming, in the unlikely form of waste management. Pakistan produces around 20 million tonnes of waste each year; half of which remains uncollected. Nida and her family live their life set amongst a backdrop of rubbish. ‘When the children come in contact with some dirty place it leads to skin diseases,’ says Nida.
Tearfund partner Pak Mission Society (PMS) aims to change all that by training local people like Nida to collect and treat waste products at new community recycling hubs, enabling them to earn an income from selling on recyclable waste and compost.
£267 once doubled could give twelve people like Nida the training to work as waste collectors at a hub, enabling them to feed their families, improve their living environment and overcome poverty.
Until 17 May, all sponsorship money donated through this challenge will be doubled by the UK government, up to £2 million! The money you give will help Tearfund transform lives around the world where the need is greatest. Match funding from the UK government will be used by Tearfund's partners in Pakistan, to help people like Nida.
Please join us as we take a stand against poverty.
To read Nida’s story and find out more about Tearfund’s amazing work, please visit their website: www.tearfund.org/meanbean
