Week of hunger to help combat world poverty

This week the 19-year-old will live of just $2 as part of the Oaktree Foundation’s largest fundraising campaign to eradicate poverty worldwide, Live Below the Line.

Last year when Umulkhayr took part in Live Below the Line she did not make it through the five day challenge but having taken part in the Roadtrip to End Poverty earlier this year, she is determined to take part again and has almost raised half of her $500 goal.

‘I was lucky enough to escape living in poverty like the rest of my family did when they fled Somalia,’ Umulkhayr said.

‘It shouldn’t be up to luck whether someone lives comfortably or in poverty.’

Umulkhayr is in her second year of nursing at Curtin University and said a trip to Somalia with her family when she was 12-years-old helped her chose her career path.

‘It’s a bit of a shock seeing the difference between the two countries and how families live – it defiantly solidified that I wanted to work in health,’ she said.

‘I did nursing so I could travel a lot with it and go back to Somalia and help in hospitals.’