Mid Sussex teen’s challenge to live on £2 budget to help Ghanaians

Poppy Whitehead, from Burgess Hill Girls, hopes to raise at least £1,500 so that once she gets to Busua, Ghana, in April she can buy textbooks, stationery, toys and sports equipment for the nursery and to make a contribution to the local hospital, as she will be volunteering at both sites.

Poppy decided to take on the challenge after forming a friendship with a girl in Gambia.

Poppy said: “It is something I’ve always wanted to do. My Gambian friend Mia and I have been WhatsApping for a few years and I’ve built up a connection with her and I wanted to be able to help out people like her who just don’t have the same privileges we have. I was looking at opportunities to travel and do some volunteering and I came across an organisation called The Mighty Roar, who help sort trips to locally run volunteering schemes.

“The average daily budget for people in Ghana is £2.35 and that must cover all their food. We in Britain enjoy a standard of living that most people in Ghana could only dream of and I thought it would be a good way of highlighting the needs of Ghanaians by undertaking to live on £2 a day for a week from January 31. To be able to complete this challenge I will have to give up my usual luxuries like coffee, multiple snacks and my dad’s tasty meals and look to bulk buy the cheapest, plainest ingredients in the supermarket. I will have to carefully plan all my meals and budget, taking into account any leftovers to reuse.

Ghana actually has a national health service free at the point of need, like ours. But these hospitals struggle with underresourcing and understaffing as their economy cannot support a free healthcare service like ours can. I am keen to study medicine at university so I am really interested to experience a healthcare system in a middle-low income country,”

To donate, visit www.gogetfunding.com/help-me-raise-money-for-supplies-for-children-in-overcrowded-nurseries-and-to-provide-medical-supplies-in-ghana