This week I've been doing the Ration Challenge. I've been eating the same rations as a refugee from Talbieh camp, Jordan, in order to help raise awareness of their plight. Every dollar donated will help keep refugees fed, give them access to clean water, and allow children to attend schooling while in camps.

I'm five days into the challenge, which finishes this Saturday. Just to give you an idea of what kind of effect this challenge is having on my body, despite feeling quite energetic I'm very, very hungry. A meal like the one pictured (70g of brown rice, tablespoon of kidney bean/chickpea/lentil mix, and 75g of flatbread) contains roughly 450 calories. I'm eating twice a day (as I normally do) so my daily caloric intake is around 1000 calories if you count the tea and small amount of milk I'm allowed to have as well. The recommended caloric intake for men is 2500. A man of my stature and level of physical activity; spread across two meals in a day I would normally consume around 3000 calories.

Before I started the challenge I weighed 107.2kg. As of this morning, I'm at 105.1kg.

Why am I telling you this? I only have to eat like this for a couple more days. The people I'm trying to support, however, will go on eating like this for months, years... I believe that those that can help should. This is how I'm helping, but I'm relying on the generosity of others to ensure that not only the message gets out, but families displaced by war, religious discrimination, racial prejudice, and/or political discord, etc. can be supported in the pursuit of a life of peace and opportunity.