What is a 40 Hour Famine? - The 40 Hour Famine is exactly as it sounds, 40 hours without food. This is an annual fundraising event held by World Vision to raise funds for its work in third world countries and countries that have been recently had disasters.
How do you do the 40 Hour Famine?
- Firstly, it is important to realise that the Famine is about giving up something for a period of time whilst being sponsored. For children, it is reccommended that they partake in a 20 Hour Famine or an alternative famine (eg technology, or a themed famine). This is also recommended for anybody who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, on medication, elderly, breastfeeding or with any food or dietary problems.
- When you have decided to do a famine, you need to get in touch with a school/church/town/city or region etc World Vision liaison. 'www.worldvision.org' is a good place to go if you are interested in finding out more.
- Get a Famine Pack, and take the sponsorship book with you for a couple of weeks. Pester people to sponsor you. I know a guy that raised $6000 on his own, so anybody can definitely get a few sponsors if they try.
- Do the Famine. I'm currently on nearly 26 hours. Try to organise things to keep you busy during this period if you think 40 hours is ages. The Famine is a national event in my country, and is done on a certain weekend each year. However, if the time does not suit, it is simply to do it on another weekend.
- Collect in the money from your sponsors.
- Hand in the Famine Pack and money into the liason.
- Whew!
The Rules
- Don't eat food (unless you are doing an alternative famine).
- Don't drink food drinks.
- You may drink as much juice and water as you like. World Vision reccommends at least two litres a day. (I also think that if you had a soda stream machine and carbonated the water, this would make the famine easier...?}
- Don't plan heavy exercise during the Famine.
- You may take glucose boiled lollies, eg barley sugars
- If it's getting hard, remember why you are doing the Famine, and who gets the proceeds (for more information, see the World Vision node)
Why the Famine is a great thing to do - Every dollar counts. For example, (all amounts in NZ dollars, which are approximately .45 of a US dollar) $0.02 buys a water purification tablet; $2 provides schoolbooks for 8 children (Cambodia); all the way to $425 buying a 4x4 metre tent to house a family in a crisis situation like the Gujarat earthquake in India.
Many countries around the world take part in this annual event that was begun in the mid 1970s. It's a great opportunity to do something for somebody in need. In the words of World Vision - How long does it take to save a life? Just one weekend. | 
