Five quid a day.

I have stumbled upon this great link on Refugee Action's Facebook page: Five quid a day is the blog of a Refugee Action supporter who's living on £35 a week for Lent, to try and better understand life on asylum support.

It is very well written, very insightful and thought provoking. Here's an article, but check out her daily updates HERE. 

"96p change

96p – that’s how much I’ve got left as my first week living on asylum support (£35.13) ends. I thought I’d done pretty well at lunch time, having topped up my phone with a fiver (the minimum my pay-as-you-go phone will let me), and bought my Mum a birthday card and a stamp to go on it. All I had to do was buy a bolt to fix my bike, just a few pence, I had assumed. But the hardware shop could only sell me a box of them, and suddenly I was down to less than a pound. OK, so most asylum seekers don’t have access to a bike (but then they don’t have to get to work either), and I could have gone without. But most asylum seekers would have had something more urgent to spend the £1.65 on, like some of the basics I’ve been taking for granted this week – toothpaste, washing up liquid, or a cheap pair of gloves to brave the delightful British weather we’ve had recently. In fact I’ve pretty much broken even this week, as I actually used 60p more phone credit than I topped up by, something I’ll have to rectify when I’m able.

So I start week two with my 96p savings, plus my weekly £35.13 – a splendid total of £36.09. I need another fiver for my phone, £3 for the launderette, and am going to put £8 away towards the cost of the coach fare home at Easter – I’m just hoping I’ve got enough cash saved up before the cheap tickets disappear. So in reality I have more like £20. Since I haven’t entirely emptied the larder, I’m hoping my food bill will be lower this week – let’s hope so, as I’ve got less than £3 a day to get by on.

But while I’m worrying about my food bill, twenty women have now been on hunger strike at Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre in Bedford for 17 days in protest at their indefinite detention. Doctors are now warning that the women risk long-term damage to their health. This comes after a critical report last week from the Children’s Commissioner about the treatment of children in detention, and renewed calls to end child detention.  The story of one of the hunger strikers was published in the Guardian on Monday."

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J'ai découvert ce lien sur la page Facebook de Refugee Action: Five quid a day est le blog d'une supporter de Refugee Action qui vit avec £35 par semaine pendant le Carême, pour essayer de mieux comprendre la vie des demandeurs d'asile.

C'est très bien écrit, très intéressant et ça fait réfléchir. Allez voir ICI comment elle s'en sort.