A Delicious Way to Help
Welcome, and thanks for visiting!
When I moved into my new apartment in August 2007, I had just been reading Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond, written by activist & political advisor John Pendergrast and actor Don Cheadle.
The book was my introduction to understanding what is going on in Darfur, and made me want to do SOMETHING to help. As I was thinking of ways to raise awareness and money to support the groups that are pushing to end the genocide in Darfur, and celebrate my new apartment, it struck me: have a Dinner for Darfur. Cook delicious African style food for not too much money, and have friends come over for a housewarming dinner for $20 a plate and learn a little bit about what's going on, and give all the proceeds to organizations.
My basic philosophy on the issue: some day, 20 years from now or whatever, I'm going to have kids that are learning about world issues, and they are going to learn about Darfur. Hopefully things will be much better than they are now. But, what if they aren't? My kids are going to come home and ask, "Dad, if things are so bad, why didn't you do anything about it?" And I think we all have to answer to that every single day.
We're all busy, and all have very important things to do, but I truly believe that we, whether it is your 7th grade football team, your church choir, or the whole world, are only as good as our worst player, singer, or civilization. If we don't like what we see out there, then we better do something to change it. I feel this is one important situation that will define who we are
as humans on this planet, and we can do simple, fun, and even
delicious things to help. That is what Dinner for Darfur is about.
Our first Dinner for Darfur was held on October 7 in San Francisco. We had 10 people attend, paid about $100 for food ingredients, and the other $100 was donated to the Save Darfur Coalition. Coincidentally, some donors to Save Darfur had agreed to match all donations in kind up until September 30, so I had donated the $100 on Sept 30 and doubled our impact. Suhweet!
Thank you for visiting, for caring, and for doing something about it. Tons more information can be found at these websites and many more.
Genocide Intervention Network (and their Dinner for Darfur page)
Also, I've posted the recipes we used so you can get some ideas of your own.
Thank you, and remember, Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous. (--Tina Seelig)
Tyler
tyler.huebner.googlepages.com