Many people attended the fundraiser dinner for orphans in Tanzania at the Cosmo house on sunday November 11th 2007. (Sam Mullineaux, Buzz photographer)

The original Thanksgiving dinner — a time when two cultures came together for a meal which we continue to celebrate as a time to give thanks. On this American holiday, we generally eat turkey, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, cranberries, and of course, pie. Like for so many other Thanksgiving meals, these classic Thanksgiving treats were served at the Cosmopolitan Club last Sunday, provided by the international students who live there.

The dinner is a fun time for people to savor good company and enjoy a good meal, but there is a further cause to this gathering. This 30-year tradition of the American Thanksgiving dinner in the 100-year-old international student club also serves the dual purpose of acting as a fundraiser to raise awareness for particular groups around the world.

This year, the club is accepting donations to raise money for the education of orphan girls in Arusha, Tanzania, who live in impoverished conditions among the epidemic of AIDS. They are also selling calendars with images of Tanzania, designed by graphic artist Kate Peterson.

The organization receiving the contributions is Moja Dunia, meaning “One World” in Swahili, Tanzania’s official language.

“It’s an extremely worthy cause to support, a wonderful delicious meal, and a chance to break bread with many different people from different cultures,” said Andrea Shields, executive director of the Cosmopolitan Club.

Last year, the proceeds from the dinner went to a town in Russia, where club member Sharyl Corrado, had friends and knew that the schools there were under funded.

“Four or five different schools received funding … developmental tools for the younger kids, and blackboards for the high schools,” Carrado said. Moja Dunia came to be the recipient of this year’s donations after one of the club’s alumnus, Zhong-Ning Chen, graduated last May and decided to travel the world before settling down in California. He went to Tanzania to visit his friend, Sarah McCourt, who volunteers in HIV/AIDS education and prevention. After seeing the personal stories of several families affected by the epidemic, and visiting orphanages to play with the children who were also affected, Chen looked up the statistics of Tanzania to report back to the Club. He found that there are 1.1 million AIDS orphans living in Tanzania, and less than seven percent of all of the children in the country can go to secondary school. Chen thought the Thanksgiving dinner would be a perfect opportunity to raise funds for the orphans of Tanzania.

“This is happening far away, and does not seem like it needs to be in our immediate concern, but, it means

a lot to me,” said Chen. “If I can do something to change someone’s life, it makes my existence meaningful.”

This dinner was made successful through the support of the community. Local businesses and community members donated food and services, although Shields said that this year was particularly difficult.

“It’s so hard to get food donations this time of year,” Shields said. “There are so many organizations vying for stuff.”

To help with the lack of donation, Chen returned from California for the dinner, bringing 50 pounds of mashed potatoes.

“I made them last year, and my friends who were American, German, and Austrian, all think I did a good job,” Chen said.

“There are a lot of issues going on in the world,

a lot of people that need help in the world,” he said. “The world can be a better place from people here, making small changes.”

To learn more about the organization, visit www.mojadunia.org.