The 27-year-old psychologist will live on two dollars a day next month to raise money for the Oaktree Foundation’s Live Below the Line campaign.

“I’ll have to warn my colleagues about it, because I’ll likely be irritable and short-tempered (during that week),” she said.

This is the second year Ms Tan-Kristanto is taking part, and she said the money could really help communities in developing countries.

“(Oaktree) helps people in developing countries get themselves out of poverty in sustainable ways, like education,” she said.

People who take part in the challenge have just $10 to spend on food from May 4 to 8.

The money limit is determined by finding the extreme poverty level and then setting it at the equivalent in Australian dollars.

Ms Tan-Kristanto said she had a pretty clear idea of what to cook for the week, but it would also depend on prices in the supermarket.

“I’m planning a bag of oats in the mornings ... some form of lentil soup at lunch, and dinner will likely be pasta,” she said.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to fit in some nice flavours, like veggies and cheese if I can get away with it, but we’ll see when I go to the supermarket.”

The key aspect of this campaign is the fundraising effort, with Ms Tan-Kristanto aware of the impossibility of comparing her life with that of someone actually living below the extreme poverty line.

“It gives you just an ounce of understanding of what it must be like; I can still sleep in my bed, buy petrol, go the doctor if I’m sick, and all the things like that.”

You can find more information on Ms Tan-Kristanto's efforts here. 

POVERTY will continue to be passed down through generations if its underlying causes are not tackled, say Ballarat service providers. 

Centacare chief executive David Beaver said getting children into education was crucial. 

“Studies have shown if you don’t succeed in those first couple of years, it’s much harder to later on,” he said.

“People feel sorry for young kids (in poverty). The question is, when do they stop feeling sorry for the children and start calling them dole-bludgers?” 

United Way boss Geoff Sharp said it was tough to deal with unemployment later on when multiple issues could affect a person’s employability. 

“Here we are in 2015, and we’re still dealing with entrenched poverty and entrenched unemployment,” he said.

“We really need to ask these questions (on how to reduce it).” 

A report released on Tuesday found that punishing people financially for not getting a job would not work to reduce “chronic or persistent poverty or deprivation”. 

The Committee for Economic Development of Australia, which produced the report, said current and recent governments had not grasped the difficulty of getting people with major issues off welfare. 

“The main problem often isn’t that people don’t have a job, but the consequence of a range of other issues including education levels, mental health, social exclusion or discrimination,” the committee said. 

In addition to childhood circumstances, the report identified the dangers of people falling back into poverty even after gaining employment. 

alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au