Heifer International is a nonprofit group focused on raising awareness about underprivileged areas and ending world hunger. One of their learning facilities is located in Perryville, Arkansas at this facility students are able to experience a night in a third world situation. The locations represented are Guatemala, Thailand, Zambia, Generic Urban Slum and a Refugee Camp. Students are only given supplies that a family in this location would typically have on hand. It is up to the students to work as a group and trade and barter for supplies that other groups have access to. The must cook all their meals and clean the dishes, build fires and basic jobs other people living in these conditions would experience everyday. The students placed in the refugee camp are given no supplies and must beg for everything they need and are unable to communicate with their language. Some random students are given more challenging situations like pregnancy, and losing a limb.
This is a great way for students to really learn and understand poverty by living it and feeling what other people feel. However, unlike the people who this is just everyday experience students know they will receive food the following day. First hand experience is a great way to make hunger a real experience. Reading about poverty in a book and experiencing a taste of it is great to make students understand what it means. They come out being more empathetic people and feel a need to help people living in these places.
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