View Video from NBC 4 Washington
Two dollars doesn’t seem to go very far. Two singles might be enough for a plain cup of coffee or to cover the tip for a business lunch or to get a soft drink from a vending machine.
But $2 is what nearly half the world lives on every day.
The students who participated in the Two Dollar Challenge at the University of Mary Washington in April learned the value of a dollar.
About 20 UMW students, led by economics professor Shawn Humphrey, spent the week living in a makeshift shelter made of cardboard boxes and tarps. And they spent $2 a day on food and other necessities.
The challenge, now in its fourth year, encourages students to forego the daily luxuries they often take for granted in order to raise awareness about global poverty.
“You realize how wealthy our community is,” Humphrey said.
At the same time, the participants worked to raise money for Opportunity International, a microfinance organization that provides loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
The Mary Washington group raised more than $2,200 to provide loans for two Kenyan women entrepreneurs.
Two Dollar Challenge participants at more than a dozen other campuses raised money for entrepreneurs through Opportunity International as well.
Junior Megan Higgs, who is participating in the challenge for the first time, said the experience of living without the distractions of modern technology has been a positive one.
“I’m more stress-free,” she said. “I don’t freak out about the little things.”
But, as the name implies, living on limited means is a challenge.
“I think the hardest part has been begging [for food],” Higgs said. “It’s out of my comfort zone.”
Humphrey started the Two Dollar Challenge at UMW in 2007 as a project for his economic development class.
“It gave me the itch to do more,” he said. “It opened my eyes.”
Since the first year, the challenge has raised thousands of dollars to “partner with the poor to break the self-perpetuating cycle of poverty,” according to the Two Dollar Challenge Web site.
At the end of the week, when the shelter goes back to being pieces of trash and the students return to their previous ways of life, Humphrey hopes the challenge will stay in their minds as much as it has in his.
“[The challenge] is the starting point for everything
I do,” he said.