This week, the Darfur Awareness Club successfully launched its first project of the spring. Two thin client computers in the dining hall gave Choaties the chance to use the website Freerice.com to brush up on their vocabulary skills while combating world hunger, all from the comfort of the senior section. Every time a user would correctly identify the meaning of the word the website would donate 20 grains of rice to the World Food Program.
The idea to set up computers in the Dining Hall came from the desire of the Darfur Awareness Club members to organize a venue for students to take actions that could help the victims of the genocide in Darfur. Many of the club’s members felt that, while the club did a good job talking about issues, it was very hard to provide a way for students to help directly. Freerice.com also appealed to the club because the World Food Program’s biggest operation is in Sudan: it plans to help 5.6 million people in the region in 2008.
“Free rice is unique,” says Aaron Green ’08, because it “requires the willingness to dig to the recesses of one’s vocabulary and turn that knowledge into food for the less fortunate.” Instead of asking for donations of money, the Club was asking for a donation of time.
Everyone could feel the immediate gratification of donating rice to those who had none. The project was very effective at reaching out to various members of the student body, because it was fun and easy to access. As Marian Homans-Turnbull ’08 put it: “I think it really got students…to pitch in. It definitely became a social activity—kids wandered over to see what other kids were doing and so got involved themselves.”
The project was a success. The records kept at the table show that 141,566 grains of rice were donated, the equivalent of 3539 grams (g) of rice. There are 45g of rice in a serving, so the Choate community donated approximately 79 servings of rice. Many more grains were probably donated by students who learned about or were reminded of the website by the project.
The primary mission of the Darfur Awareness Club is to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur and its victims. The club members hope that this project reminded Choate students about the dire situations that Darfuris and many other refugees find themselves in all over the world and gave everyone an opportunity to help.
Students test their vocabulary skills to win rice for Darfur. David Woo ’09
