Fourteen-year-old Morgan Hopkins, a Year 9 student at Saltus Grammar School, has learned her lesson. And she wants others to learn the lesson too.

A member of the Sharks Swim Club and the national squad, Morgan started chatting with fellow swimmer Roy-Allen Burch about his company, Wonder Effect. Through the company, profiled in the April 12, 2008 edition of The Royal Gazette, Mr. Burch is attempting to raise social awareness, particularly of the tragedy of Darfur, by selling T-shirts he has designed.

Morgan was inspired to raise a similar awareness among her peers. She had been studying the trans-Atlantic slave trade in school and noted: "It was really terrible. [The film] 'Amistad' was hard to watch. I didn't know that things like that were happening now."

Moved to do something, she put together a PowerPoint slide presentation, "Lessons not Learned: Voices from Darfur", taking images and facts from Internet.

The short presentation included background information about the war in Darfur, and the human cost, including slavery, torture, mass displacement of the population and the dramatic reduction in the quality of life of huge numbers of innocent people.

Her teacher, Lyndsay Miller, encouraged her to deliver the presentation to her class and drew it to the attention of Deputy Principals Albert Steede and Ann Paynter. That led to a presentation in assembly and a move to hold a grub-day to raise funds for Darfur. The recently-held grub day raised just over $1,000, and the funds were presented to the Red Cross at a cheque presentation on May 19.

"I really wish the war would stop, but I can't stop it by myself," Morgan stated. "Others have tried, but it didn't really work."

However, she continued: "My teachers keep telling us one person can make a difference, and I raised money."

What can her peers throughout Bermuda do?

"Raise money for the Red Cross through grub days and bake sales.

"Just making people aware will make a difference."