The idea of the fundraising came when Verdon College pupils Kayla Barker (17) and Katie Dennis (17) attended a youth conference hosted by World Vision in Dunedin in May.
There, they learned more about the difficult situation of communities in Malawi where every day 11 children under the age of 5 die from diseases related to dirty water.
"We were both so shocked that we decided that we definitely would be doing something. We started to brainstorm ideas on the van ride home,’’ Kayla said.
They will be spending 40 hours in the Invercargill City Council library as part of the World Vision 40 Hour Famine from 7am today to 11pm tomorrow.
During their stay at the library, the pupils will be writing 400 letters to corporations in a bid to persuade them to make a positive change to their business practices.
They will also be using this time to learn four new skills – kapa haka, yoga, sign language and crochet.
Kayla believes each of them will be writing about five letters every hour to achieve the goal.
"I'm definitely excited, but a little bit nervous how it's gonna turn out.
"But I love that we're able to do something like a little bit more fun, like doing something like this, but also, knowing that it's going to a good cause because we are fundraising as well.’’
Members of the public are encouraged to also come along to be part of the four workshops and also to write letters.
The most important thing was to raise awareness for the matter, she said.
"We want to really focus on the advocacy of the side of the challenge because we felt like in Invercargill, we don't actually know what is happening over there.
"We take water advantage every day — we use about 200 litres of water a day [per person] while in Malawi they use only five litres of water a day per person. I think that's insane.’’
