By CASEY NEILL
Could someone live on nothing but rice, flour, lentils, chick peas, sardines and kidney beans?
That’s the diet of a Syrian refugee and what the Reverend Jeffrey Parker from St James Anglican Church in Dandenong will eat for a week.
He’s signed up for the Refugee Week Act for Peace Ration Challenge which will run from 19 to 25 June to show refugees that people are with them, not against them.
Reverend Parker said the experience would open his eyes to what it was like for refugees to survive on rations.
“It will be tough, I think,” he said.
“But it’s only for one week, whereas the people in the refugee camps have to do it every week with no hope in sight.”
His ration pack includes the same rations that a Syrian refugee living in Jordan receives from Act for Peace, plus extra flour and rice to represent the food coupons the UN and other organisations sometimes distribute.
Rev Parker will live on 1920 grams of rice, 400g flour, 170g lentils, 85g dried chick peas, 125g tinned sardines, 400g tinned kidney beans and 300 millilitres of vegetable oil for the week.
“That’s it. No meat, coffee or alcohol,” he said.
He will collect donations for his efforts, which will go to support refugees.
“The money you give will help provide urgently needed food rations, healthcare and education to help give Syrian refugees the strength they need to cope,” he said.
“It will also help many other refugees around the world to build safe, just and dignified lives, now and in the future.”
A $67 donation can pay for a hygiene parcel, including soap, nappies and toothbrushes, while $139 can provide food rations for a refugee for six months.
Just $279 can provide an entire year’s worth of rations for a refugee, and $841 is enough to provide food rations for a family of six for six months.
Visit http://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/jeffreyparker to donate.
