A Meal for Darfur – Mount School Aegis Students

In the beginning our Aegis Students society was just a small group of Mount School students and Ms Snelson (a Mountie teacher). Some of us had never heard of Aegis Students and joined the group with our friends, others joined because they wanted to know more; none of us knew what we would achieve.

After reading about the crisis in Darfur, we decided to try and help in some way. After discussing some ideas, we decided to support Fund4Darfur’s Stoves Project with a Meal4Darfur as part of the York Food and Drink Festival. We planned to serve traditional Sudanese food and adhere to their customs; such as providing juice to our guests before the meal.  We wanted to educate people about the crisis in Darfur and raise money to help.

We threw ourselves into researching the crisis in Darfur and how to sell enough tickets to make our Meal for Darfur a success. We organised a successful cake sale to raise money for our publicity posters and flyers and wrote our own speeches to educate the guests about Darfur, during the meal. We hoped it would be a success.

Our Meal for Darfur was a memorable night. 120 people enjoyed lamb or vegetable stew, with rice or couscous followed by Sudanese cheesecake. The food was delicious! During each course a speech was delivered by a Mount School Aegis Student to educate people about the crisis in Darfur and the Stoves Project. We invited a member of the Aegis Students national education team to support our event and sell Aegis Students t-shirts and Rwandan jewellery. Everyone who attended our Meal for Darfur really enjoyed the evening and donated generously to Fund4Darfur.

We had done it! Well over £1000 was raised through ticket sales (£2.50 from each ticket went directly to Aegis) jewellery sales and donations alone. We hope we had also strongly changed people’s views on the crisis in Darfur. The Mount Aegis Students society will be Aegis supporters for life and together we saved over 50 woman and children from the risk of rape and sexual violence. It is safe to say a Meal for Darfur was a success!