I ate like a Syrian refugee for a week

It’s 2AM and my stomach is clearly furious at me.

I try to ignore it, repeating to myself again and again that “it’s for a good cause”. But the truth is, sitting in bed with a pounding headache and incredible hunger pangs; I’ve begun to feel rather resentful toward the cause. As though my current state were having an adverse reaction to my initial intent.

“I’m not doing this next year, that’s for sure.” I stubbornly think to myself.

Most people laughed when I told them – rather dramatically - that I was staaarving, or that I couldn’t focus because I was eating rice for the third time that day and the lack of nutrition really doesn’t allow for an active body or active mind.

In their defence I can absolutely see the humour in it: an Italian girl whose life is essentially based purely on food and cooking, living on nothing but drab rice, lentils and kidney beans for a week. I get it, I do.

I was often met with a lot of “there’s no way I’d eat that for a week, you’re crazy!” or “no coffee and no alcohol for a WEEK!? No thanks!” (minus the expletives that enthusiastically added to their shock.)

Though meant in good taste, their laughter – and my own – was quickly stifled when I told them that more than anything, I was depressed.

The food that I was eating was clearly just meant for endurance. Bland, unenticing and less nutritious to what I was used to, my mind was a constant haze.

Not to mention the lethargy, and the caffeine withdrawals – which, truth be told, has frightened me off caffeine since.

When I signed up for the Ration Challenge – where you eat like a Syrian refugee for a week – I wasn’t in complete ignorance, and I knew that this ‘depression’ was to be expected.

Having received a pre-Ration Challenge booklet, I felt I had adequately prepared myself mentally in the lead up.

RELATED: Why I decided to take up the Ration Challenge

Yes, I expected to feel hangry and lethargic. And I braced myself for that with stubborn pride, not wanting it to crush me. I didn’t, however, expect to feel guilty.

My guilt was overwhelming.

With a solid night’s sleep out of the question, I spent most of my nights tossing and turning.

Despite the hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach screaming at me to cheat and curb my appetite, I couldn’t get let go of the fact that whilst I was hungry, this wasn’t really my life.

I’d live through it and eventually get over it. But for millions of refugees all over the world, this is their life. Rifled with hunger, fear and suffering, they have known extremes that I will almost certainly never experience in my time.

It was hard to fathom that my ‘suffering’ would be ending in a short week, while theirs knows no end.

And so I would roll over in my large, soft, cosy bed and turn the tele on to distract myself from my horrible guilt, less than impressed by the irony.

There was also the fact I lost three kilos in the space of a week. Three.

There's a difference between losing weight with intent and losing weight without it. It's the lack of control that comes with the latter, which can be quite frightening.

Losing weight without having that control suggests illness, anxiety or stress, neither of which are positive symptoms. So when we lose weight under these circumstances we associate that feeling with, generally, concern.

Three kilos in a week is a substantial amount. I assume it to be the result of immediately ceasing all the sugars and fats my body is used to, but I just didn't like the feeling.

Because once again, it's not a diet that made me feel better about myself, it's a diet that made me realise how indulgent my life is. How I take it for granted. And how I have the world at my fingertips. While others do not.

More so, having lost that amount of weight in just seven days, I could suddenly comprehend how the world, facing its largest humanitarian crisis ever, is seeing numbers of 20 million people fronting starvation and famine.

The foods we received were intended to be sustaining: foods that keep you going. But when you eat the same food day in, day out, it's monotonous and I was, to say the least, bored.

Losing the weight also probably had something to do with the fact that by the end of the week I became so sick of the food, I plainly refused to eat it.

My body would have rather starve than stomach another bite of plain rice. Except for dinner, when it became mind over matter and the thought of sleeping on an empty stomach was motivation enough.

By the end of day seven I found myself with leftovers, having not been able to finish the rations provided.

The combination of boredom and exhaustion had left me with roughly 300g rice, 40g chickpeas, 80g lentils and 35g sugar.

Staring at the pile of food before me, I thought to myself “what a brat”. Remember at dinnertime when mum and dad would say “don't waste food, there are children starving in the world”? I had literally taken a challenge to stand in support of these children and their families, and lo and behold I hadn’t eaten all my food.

In an effort not to completely disappoint myself, I passed along the remaining food to mum knowing it would be put to good use.

Eating like a Syrian refugee for a week brought the current world humanitarian crisis to a very harsh reality.

Earlier this year, the UN humanitarian chief Stephen O’Brien, declared that we were facing the largest world humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. I still find this unbelievable.

For millions of innocent civilians, the terrors of war, natural disaster, and famine have forced them to abandon their homes, their families, and in some cases, their identities, just to survive.

Refugees are seeking a better and dignified life. And rightly so. No one should have to suffer due to circumstances that are out of their control.

I took the Ration Challenge to stand in unison with these refugees and to remind them, and more importantly ourselves, that they are not merely a number.

My weekly rations

Receiving the ration pack was a huge wake up call. Seeing firsthand the actual amount of food I was allowed to consume in one week really hit me in how little a refugee receives.

I wanted others to see it also, to start a conversation and keep the momentum going during Refugee Week. I uploaded a photo of the food and the donations came flooding in. Friends, family, and colleagues were super supportive, empathetic not only to my week ahead, but the cause itself.

I had almost 2kg of rice (420g provided plus the 1.5kg ration coupon), 170g lentils, 85g dried chickpeas, 125g tinned sardines – of which I couldn’t stomach, 400g of tinned kidney beans – which were a lifesaver because they were filling and salty, 300ml of vegetable oil and a food coupon for 400g of flour.

Thanks to the support of my friends and family, my efforts were not in vain and raising over $750, I was fortunate enough to add to my diet a little more nutrition and flavour.

As incentive to raise more money, food rewards were offered to help break the monotony during the week.

Now, I’m not one to ask for money, but seeing what was in that ration pack box turned me into Oliver real quick, think “please Sir, can I have some more?!”.

Certain donation targets reached were rewarded with food allowances including tea bags, sugar, protein, or a vegetable.

For me, I was able to tick off: a chosen spice (I chose garlic, received when you donated to yourself); 8 teabags (received at $200); 50g of sugar (received at $400) 170g of a selected vegetable (I chose sweet potato, received at $400); and 120g of an uncooked protein (I chose egg, received at $700).

It might not seem like a lot, but these rewards were singlehandedly my saviours for getting through the week. And unlike refugees, having to make and sell handicrafts to receive them, I was lucky enough to have the love and support from those who cared to provide them.

Not all refugees are able to find ways to bring in extra income, which means they are limited to the contents provided in the ration pack alone.

As well as the dietary benefits, donations helped to support the much-needed resources for refugees in Jordan. This includes housing, education, medical aid and supplements, as well as food and clean water.

This experience was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to face.

Physically, yes, but mentally even more so. It wasn’t called a ‘challenge’ for nothing; in fact I think it was quite aptly named.

For these families, and these children, that are living their lives in suffering, taking part in this challenge seems such a small feat. A brief insight into their daily struggle, I can only imagine what they must be going through.

Refugees are people, and if we could only just recognise them as such, we might be able to make a more impactful difference.

Waking up on that final Sunday morning, knowing that I made it through the week was incredible.

Partaking in conversation with people at home, in my circle of friends, and in the office about what I was doing, was motivational. And knowing that I raised enough money to send two children to school for a year, well that was just bloody fantastic.

Just because we don’t understand what it’s like, doesn’t mean we have to ignore it. I encourage you all, if you’d like to make a difference, you don’t have to partake in the challenge, or even donate if you choose not to. Simple compassion is all it takes. Conversation, awareness and compassion can go a long way.

If you’d like to donate to Act for Peace or take part in next year’s Ration Challenge, go to www.actforpeace.org.au.

Helpful Tips for Future Ration Challengers:

Aside from the tips provided by the team at Act for Peace, which you really shouldn’t ignore, I conjured up a few of my own.

If you do partake in the challenge, do take note; these are things I learnt along the way and in hindsight.

Plan your meal ahead

It took me a whole day to properly calculate the amount of food I had and how it could be evenly dispersed over the week.

Take the time to create a schedule for your week outlining what meals you’ll have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You’ll thank yourself for it during the week when you’ve nothing but ‘rice brain’.

Plus, it means you won’t eat everything at once!

Planning your meals also means you don’t get caught out at the shops when you realise you can’t buy anything for lunch because you forgot to make and bring any, so you have to sit there watching your friend eat as you kick yourself over and over again. Plan. Ahead.

Cook for your timetable

If you’re working everyday, cooking in advance is something that can save you plenty of time and energy.

I didn’t like the idea of cooking for the week, so I tried to cook for two days at a time.

I boiled rice six meals at a time, and popped it into the fridge. If you’re a shift worker like myself, precooking also means you’re not left starved or tempted to cheat because you didn’t have time to make anything on the day.

Start light, finish heavy

As the old saying goes, ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day’.

This is true. When you’re not rationing. When you’re rationing, every meal is important.

What’s more important is when to eat what. I stuck to congee for breakfast with a bit of sugar, because it was warm, filling and sweet.

Lunches included legumes, or flour to make bread, and dinner consisted of filling vegetables, protein and heavier legumes. I might have tossed and turned during my sleep in hunger, but it could have been a lot worse.

Multiply your tea

Eight teabags are a real treat – math not being my forte, I still managed to figure out that I was living on a tea a day.

Saving your morning teabag for an evening cuppa is especially helpful and comforting before bed.

Know your foods

Chickpeas take forever to cook. They need to be soaked overnight in cold water, and then boiled 40 minutes – 1 hour to be edible.

Don’t do what I did and attempt to cook them when you get home from a day out, famished, expecting them to cook in 20 minutes. It won’t happen.

When choosing rewards, choose wisely. Sweet potato is good for you, filling, and flavoursome.

Eggs can be used in fried rice, which is far better than plain rice.

Eggs and flour also make pasta. Halfway through making my flatbreads (flour and water) I realised I could have made 200-300g of pasta. Though it’s not typical to a Syrian diet, it would have been incredibly comforting, and lasted for roughly three meals.

Choose tinned tomatoes as your vegetable, and you’ve got yourself a home-cooked treat.

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