What would it feel like to go 30 hours without food? Some students at Weyburn Comprehensive School are finding out as they take part in World Vision Canada's 30-hour famine.
Around 25 students from the Comp are committing to collect pledges to go 30 hours without food. Jen LaCharlite is one of them.
"It's going to be tough - I eat a lot, so I think it's going to be really hard. I think by hour 15 I'll feel like crying! But if starving kids all over the world have to do it, I guess I can do it for just 30 hours," she said.
LaCharlite is hoping to raise $250 in pledges to be eligible for World Famine's Overseas Adventure.
To qualify for the contest, she has to raise the money and write an essay describing what she learned from participating in the 30-hour famine. Ten candidates will be chosen to go to Toronto in June, and from those 10, two will be selected to spend a week in a project country like Sudan, Brazil, Guatemala or India.
LaCharlite is hoping some local businesses will be willing to sponsor her, so she can get her essay and money in before the deadline of May 14. Comp students were only informed of the contest a couple days ago.
Student organizers Mary Fish and Dana Fahlman are hurrying to get as many entrants as they can. Fahlman took part in the first 30-hour famine held at the Comp last year.
"The information says each day 33,000 children die from hunger. I feel bad for those children - you don't really understand what it's like until you go without food yourself, and then when you do it, you wonder how these kids can go through it every day without eating," she said.
One child in every five who lives in a developing community is malnourished. Each day, nearly 786 million go to bed hungry.
The money the students raise will be used for a number of World Vision projects to help combat the problem of child hunger.
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