SLUM houses are to be built just yards from York Minster – but it’s all in the name of charity.

Dozens of students will install temporary shelters and sleep rough on the courtyard of St Michael le Belfrey Church in Minster Yard on the night of Friday, May 8.

The Slum Survivor event is one of many across the country, inspired by the Christian charity Soul Action.

It aims to raise money for people living in poverty across the world, and to raise awareness of their plight.

Event organiser Lorna Forrest, a first-year student at the University of York, said: “One billion people – that’s one sixth of the world’s population – live in temporary settlements or slums.

“Something that has hit me over the past year is the fact that there are real people behind these statistics.

“They’re not numbers made to shock us. People just like us; made in God’s image with God-given potential are living in unimaginable poverty, and we have the power to make a difference.”

About 30 students will take part in the York event, on the courtyard of St Michael’s.

The students will be sponsored to build their own shelter, and will sleep and cook there.

Lorna said: “We will we begin to empathise with those living like this daily, and raise money to actively help the cause.

“The lack of food will be a huge shock for us all and we will have to work hard for the things we usually take for granted, like water and shelter.

“It’s going to be a big challenge, a lot of fun and will hopefully be a life-changing weekend both for us and for the people we’re helping.”

The event is run under the tagline “spend a few days the way a billion spend a life time” and will include various challenges for participants, such as a scrap soccer match, or a weather test of the slum dwellings.

Each participant will be living off the staple food of rice and lentils, and will use the church only for its toilets.

St Michael le Belfrey – famed as the church where gunpowder plotter Guy Fawkes was baptised in 1570 – will then be open on the Saturday, with displays and information on the event and the charities involved, and with a dedicated space for prayer and contemplation.

Soul Action was set up in conjunction with Tearfund and says its aim is to demonstrate the love of God in practical and real ways to the last, the least and the lost.

More information is available online at www.soulaction.org/slumsurvivor