Twelve students and teacher Erica McConachy have signed up to The Ration Challenge, where they will eat the same ration packs as those Syrian refugees in Jordan camps.

The students are aiming to raise $6000 towards supplies for the camps.

"We're all doing it for individual reasons," year 12 student Jonah said.

"I got sucked into it by chance by one of the teachers saying 'do you want to do this?'

"Eventually I saw the purpose of actually helping people and I think it's going to bring awareness for myself, and maybe I can pass it onto other people, to know how other people have to live."

The challenge is organised by a not-for-profit called Act for Peace and is the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

Year 12 student Emma said she was inspired to take up the challenge by one of her teachers.

"I saw one of the teachers do it a few years ago and it sounded really interesting," she said.

"It's a good opportunity to stand in solidarity and understand what it's like to be a refugee and what they have to go through."

Jess, also in year 12, has done fundraising challenges before but said they tended to be fitness-based ones.

"When it came to eating I was always like 'I've got a pretty healthy diet' but then I wondered what it would be like to change it," she said.

The answer was that it would be tough.

"I found that I'm really struggling," Jess said.

"My body is depleting and I'm actually rejecting a lot of the food. It's so different. It's just awareness for me to know what they go through."

If the students donate funds themselves they are rewarded with a choice of a single spice for their food, and year 12 student Rachel said some of them have been dreaming up ways to use this to make their rice and beans more interesting.

"Some people say they won't use their spice until later in the week so the food changes and gives you a bit more variety - I haven't done that," she said.

Others, like Jonah, say they could even enjoy the food.

"It's actually not terrible food - there's a lot of good stuff there, you just have to know how to cook it," he said.

Many have had to put aside their usual hobbies for the week.

"I've got footy on Wednesday but I won't be able to do that," year eight student Ebony said.

She said she expects she'll feel "exhausted, mentally drained" by the end of the week.

Act for Peace co-founder Karen McGrath said the challenge was designed to give young people a sense of what others face.

"By eating what a refugee eats, children are stepping into the shoes of another person in another country, and experiencing just one of the many struggles that refugees face on a daily basis," she said.

Visit www.school.rationchallenge.org.au/marian-college to donate.

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