A group of 23 Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) students spent three days and two nights on campus recently, sleeping in cardboard shanties, boiling their drinking water and simulating what it’s like to live on just $2 or less a day. The experience was part of the “Two Dollar Challenge,” an educational movement that engages students in the fight against global and domestic poverty. This year marked PLNU’s third time the university participated in the annual challenge as a part of the Month of Microfinance movement. The “Two Dollar Challenge” asked students to live on the same amount of money as millions of people living in poverty around the world do every day, according to PLNU officials. Students had to abide by rules designed to simulate poverty. Participants were not allowed to shower or bathe, could only have two outfits of clothing and couldn’t use their campus meal plans or accept free food from others. PLNU’s student Microfinance Club spearheaded the third such event for students. “The ‘Two Dollar Challenge’ is exactly that — a challenge on different levels,” said Joseph Davis, PLNU senior and president of the Microfinance Club. “The first challenge is for us, as students, to remember the less fortunate here in America,” he said. “The second challenge is for Americans, especially students, to remember there are those in the rest of the world that are much less fortunate than us. Finally, as with all things we do, it is to shows God’s glory in our lives.” Throughout the three-day experience, students collected donations to purchase a motorcycle for Hope International, a Christian microfinance institution, so loan officers can reach clients in more remote areas of Haiti.