Ben Affleck to live off US$1.50 a day

MANILA, Philippines – “Argo” award-winning director Ben Affleck has pledged to live on US$1.50 a day from April 29 to May 3 as he takes part in a Global Poverty Project dubbed “Live Below the Line.”

The Live Below the Line campaign aims to make a huge difference in the fight against extreme poverty. Since 2009, the project has encouraged challengers to spend only US$1.50 a day, an amount that over a 1.4 billion people live off on a daily basis, for 5 days.

Here’s the Live Below the Line 2013 ad featuring ‘One Tree Hill’ actress Sophia Bush:

Global Poverty Project US country director Michael Trainer said that, in 2012, 15,000 people participated in the challenge and helped raise over US$3-M in donations.

Other stars taking part in the project this year are Josh Groban, Debi Mazar, and Hunter Biden. The celebrities will tweet about their experiences so their followers will know what they are eating and drinking.

Affleck encourages his Twitter followers to join the cause:

1.4 billion people live on less than $1.50/day. I’m joining Live #BelowTheLine on behalf of @easterncongo. Will you? bit.ly/15MbxD4

— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) April 22, 2013

Here is Hugh Jackman’s advertisement for the same project in 2012:

To learn more about the cause, visit www.livebelowtheline.com/us. – Rappler.com