At least five senior Anglican clergy have picked up the challenge to live on $2.25 a day for food for five days.

They are taking part in Christian World Service’s part of the second "Live Below the Line" challenge to be held in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

It runs from Monday to Friday, September 24-28.

The Anglican participants are Archbishop David Moxon, Bishop David Rice, Bishop Philip Richardson, Bishop Justin Duckworth and Dean Jamie Allen. They can be sponsored by going online to http://www.livebelowtheline.com/nz/-cws

"Live Below the Line" is a new awareness experience that challenges participants to feed themselves on $2.25 a day – the New Zealand cash equivalent of the poverty line – for five days.

There are 1.4 billion people globally living below this line with less than $2.25 a day not only for food but for clothing, shelter, healthcare, education, and travel.

The aim of the challenge is to create a direct awareness of the realities of life in extreme poverty and to raise funds to help people in these situations through anti-poverty initiatives.

It is a cross-agency initiative where a number of New Zealand and international agencies take part. Participants include CWS, Tear Fund, The Global Poverty Project, Oxfam NZ, P3 Foundation, Unicef NZ, VSA and World Vision.

Each agency has their own recipient for the funds raised. For CWS the monies raised from "Live Below the Line" goes to the Maridi Service Agency (MSA), an organisation run by young people in South Sudan, the world’s newest nation.

MSA helps communities in South Sudan by improving education for both genders, running a local radio station, Maridi FM, and helping former child soldiers as they rejoin society.

Many of the children they work with have escaped from the infamous Lord’s Resistance Army.

South Sudan is the world’s newest nation and it faces huge challenges. The Maridi Service Agency specifically selected Christian World Service as a support partner because of the reputation CWS has forged for good “bottom up” development.

The "Live Below the Line" experience has attracted supporters from across the social spectrum.

Until recently the cast included not just Archbishop Moxon and Bishop Rice but also former Christchurch Mayor and long-time CWS supporter, Garry Moore.

He had planned to take part fully but has had to cancel for family reasons.

He says "Live Below the Line" is a “wonderful way to bring home the reality of grinding poverty.

“I applaud CWS and the other groups and people taking part in this promotion for their commitment to raising awareness of life below the poverty line."