“One child said the hardest part [of living in a war zone] was his legs were too short to step over the dead bodies,” she said.

The Highlander has been visiting refugee camps since 2013 while working for international aid agency Act for Peace.

She first became involved with the agency after she completed an internship with Act for Peace at the end of 2012. 

It was her idea to start the Ration Challenge, where people eat for a week what a refuge would survive on in a camp.

In 2013, she travelled with her colleague Act for Peace director of marketing and communications Ben Littlejohn to the border of Thailand and Burma and visited the Mae La refugee camp.

“We were collecting stories to see the impact of the war there,” Karen said.

“We were shocked to see how small the rations families received were. Because of other conflicts, aid funds had been directed away from Burma.

“Ben and I had a beautiful meal that night and we were appalled. We thought, ‘if people saw this in Australia, they’d be appalled and they’d do something, so why not try and survive on the rations ourselves?’”

The pilot program was trialled on family and friends – a little over 100 people.

They managed to raise $60,000.

“The biggest impact was the conversation it created,” Karen said.

“It shocked people when they were able to see the rations.”

The Ration Challenge was officially launched in 2015. About 1500 people signed up and $480,000 was raised for Act for Peace.

“We were so stoked,” Karen said.

“After that we decided to re-focus the challenge to refugees fleeing Syria [to Jordan] and the rations they receive there.”

Karen and Ben visited Jordan in October 2015 to talk with families and run workshops to benefit the refugees.

Karen said the refugees mostly appreciated the emotional support.

“They’re in a horribly traumatic situation,” she said.

“With the anti-refugee sentiment in the world right now, it was important for them to know people cared.”

Participants in the 2016 Ration Challenge raised $2,130,000.

Karen said she planned to take the Challenge international next year.

To find out more, visit https://actforpeace.rationchallenge.org.au/.