YOUNG members from a Malvern church will be living in slum conditions this weekend to highlight the plight of the world's poorest people.

Youth members of the Eden Church, Somers Road, aged from 12 to 15, will have to create makeshift shelters out of scanty materials and live in them while eating rice and lentils and walking miles to fetch fresh water.

Russell Dudley, the youth leader at the church, said: "Our youth group has just returned from a week’s camp held in Stafford called Soul Survivor.

"Whilst we were there, they launched a nationwide campaign to get youth groups from all around the country to join in their Slum Survivor challenge. The aim of the campaign is to help raise awareness of what it is like to spend a life in a slum."

Starting today (Friday), the young people will have to build shelters out of wooden pallets, rope, cardboard boxes and tarpaulins in the grounds of the church.

"Many slums are washed away or get destroyed, so the youth group will find out what this is like. Their slums will get destroyed at some point on the first day and they will have to rebuild it with broken bits of materials," said Mr Dudley.

They will also have to walk up to three miles to collect their water for the day, survive on only two meals a day of plain rice and lentils which they will have to cook themselves and spend the night in their makeshift shelter regardless of the weather.

Mr Dudley said: "The catchphrase of the campaign is ‘Spend a day the way millions spend a lifetime’, and we just want to make people think about how hard life is for so many people in different parts of the worlds today."