TEN youngsters from Bere Alston lived in ?slums? built by

themselves last week, as part of the Slum Survivor

challenge. The extreme fundraiser saw the teenagers,

aged between 13 and 17, trying to experience the

environments in which one billion people in the world?s

cities have to live everyday. The challenge was a

nationwide initiative set out by Soul Survivor, a Christian

charity for youth, to get youngsters involved and raise

money for Soul in the City Durban in 2009. Soul in the

City will see people going to Durban, South Africa, to

equip and encourage churches and charities there to

promote Christianity in their communities. The ultimate

simulation challenge saw the children from Bere Alston

United Church live in ?slums? in the garden of Hope

Cottage, next to the church. They had no running water,

no deodorant, and no luxuries ? and raised hundreds of

pounds for the event in Durban. The only things the

youngsters could eat from Friday night to Sunday morning

was rice and lentils, and all they could drink was water.

They had to build their own shelter out of wooden pallets,

tarpaulin, scrap and cardboard boxes. On the Sunday,

after the challenge was over, the children took the church

service and spoke of how it went and what they thought of

living in the ?slums? for a weekend. Hilary Boot-Hanford,

helper of Bere Alston?s Slum Survivor, said: ?It was to

raise people?s awareness as 60 per cent of people live in

these circumstances. ?It was much tougher than they

expected and a real eye-opener for them on what people

have to go through ? all of them learned a lot from the

challenge. ?I take my hat off to them, as none of them

gave up and none of them cheated ? they stuck to their

guns. I am incredibly proud of them.'