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March 08, 2005
Hungry for a good cause
With only two hours left, the students looked tired, exhausted even, from the lack of food. But their hopes were still high, knowing they were working toward a good cause. An hour before they ate, students gathered around in a circle and discussed what they had done and how they felt.
“Right now I feel lot of hope,” said Reed Aronow near the end of the 30 hours he and the others spent without eating. “Keep on fighting the struggle, not today, not next month, but throughout our lives.”
Aronow wasn’t the only one to feel that way. The nearly 30 participants, who went without food during the Thirty Hour Famine on Feb. 25 and 26, felt hopeful and realized how they all could make a difference in someone’s life. Through suffering from hunger like many people in the world do, they all seem to have gained their own piece of wisdom in a short period of time.
When asked on the first day of the Thirty Hour Famine how they felt and why they participated in this cause, most said that they wanted to experience something new and make a difference in someone else’s life and to experience what many people around the world experience every day.
The event was organized by two Hamline students and Sharon Jaffe, the Office of Service Learning and Volunteerism (OSLV) coordinator. The goal of the Famine, Jaffe said, was to raise money to give to World Vision so the group could distribute it among impoverished children in Africa and people affected by the tsunami that struck Asia in December of last year. World Vision is a Christian faith and development organization that gives kids a helping hand worldwide.
In the process of raising money, each student was required to ask friends and family for pledges, raising a total of around $1,500. The students then organized a raffle on campus and raised another $200.
At the end of the process, a federal program matched the fund-raised money, turning $1,700 into $11,900. Forty percent of the money will be sent to feed children who are currently suffering from hunger. Then a third of it will go toward tsunami relief and African countries such as Sudan and Kenya.
During the event, students were given games, went to watch plays and movies, volunteered at Goodwill, and did many other things to make the hours pass. When they felt dizzy or sick, they got juice or water to drink.
They starved themselves, some said, to feel what kids feel who have to suffer from hunger every day. No one passed out, but everyone was extremely hungry afterward.
The students learned about how the money they raised will be provided to the families who are currently living in poverty at the moment.
World Vision’s mission isn’t to buy the families food that will last for month or less. Instead, the money will be used to buy things such as chickens or tractors for farms to help the families get back on their feet.
Posted by msveum at March 8, 2005 04:03 PM
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