By Paul Smith
Over 1 billion people live in extreme poverty every day. Whether that be in a slum, mud hut or on the streets, it is a situation we are not exposed to or have imminent threat of in our society. But in the scriptures God calls us as a church to continually love, serve and help the poor.
As a youth group we have been involved with Friends of St Anne’s Liuli Hospital in Tanzania, helping the ladies pack the boxes ready to send out, and this has been a great opportunity for the teenagers to engage in something which serves not only the wider parish but the worldwide church.
Following on from that there was a greater desire from the teens to get involved in more active projects, so we decided to put on an event called Slum Survivors.
This gave the young people the opportunity to build and live in their own slum, under living conditions which many people live in every day for 24 hours. They faced boredom, hunger, injustice and the normal cold night sleeping on a cardboard box.
It was a great time for us all as a group and they raised over £750 in sponsorship which will be divided between Liuli Hospital and Christian Aid Refugee appeal.
This was a fantastic result and showed the young people’s hunger and desire to do something active and positive in serving the poor. More importantly it gave them on insight into how others have to live which will hopefully change their attitude to not only how thankful we should always be for what we have, but to help us to always look at ways we can serve God in practical ways every day of our lives.
Paul Smith
Youth Minister for the Parish of Chandler’s Ford
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How did the teenagers feel after living in the “slum”? Did they get enough to eat in the “slum”? Did they get to use their mobile phone? Did they get to use their iPad, iPod…? What’s the hardest part for them in this experiment?