Many MPs are invited to support good causes.

I’ve abseiled down Cheddar Gorge; been caving under the Mendips and most recently, I’ve been out collecting donations for victims of the floods in Somerset with fellow Lions Club members.

I even took part in a pancake race organised by Shelter, the homeless charity, last year alongside the BBC chief political correspondent, Nick Robinson.

Some months ago, the Bath based organisation ‘Send a Cow’ challenged me to spend a week Living Below the Line.

The challenge involves surviving on £1 a day to raise awareness of poverty in developing countries and to raise money to help pay for some of Africa’s poorest families to have livestock, training and support so they can help themselves out of poverty.

I’ll admit that by last Sunday, as I looked at the diary for my busy week ahead in London, I was just beginning to regret having accepted the challenge all those weeks ago, when March seemed such a long way off.

Tessa was challenged to ‘live below the line’  by the Bath-based organisation, Send a Cow who help some of Africa’s poorest families by providing training, support and livestock to enable rural families to grow themselves out of poverty (here is a link to their recent Impact Report).

They work in seven countries in Africa. As well as their work in Africa they also educate school children in the region about growing food, poverty in Africa and the farming methods that are used in the countries we work.

Send a Cow have a new campaign for 2014 – Live Below the Line.  Participants have been asked to eat  and drink on just a £1 a day for 5 days from 10 March –  14 March 2014 to raise money but also to raise awareness of the reality of poverty in developing countries, and in Send a Cow’s case, Africa.