Aaya Ali has worked over the past two and a half years to help reduce suffering of families who were displaced and impacted by the civil war that broke out in Sudan in April of 2023. This war has created the world’s largest humanitarian, internal displacement, and child education crises.  Over half of Sudan’s population needs humanitarian and food aid, 13 million people have been displaced, and over 14 million children are out of school across the war-torn nation.

In June 2023, Aaya organized, launched, and led local fundraisers, collecting over $2000 to support displaced families in the city of Port Sudan. She intentionally educated her community, school, and neighbors about the dire situation in Sudan as part of the fundraising, ensuring timid donors no amount was too small to help.  Her successful fundraising led to coordination with the Internally Displaced Persons camp directors in Sudan.

With the camp director’s guidance, Aaya was able to help build a small library in one of the camps for internally displaced persons, supplying books suitable for all ages, with a particular focus on elementary school children.  The library provided an alternative learning space in the absence of school classes, and camp directors said it gave kids “a sense of normalcy”.

The remaining funds were used to purchase needed food, medical supplies, and other urgent essentials.  Most recently, Aaya has pursued funding to rehab a non-profit center for kids with disabilities in Sudan that was nearly destroyed during the war.  So far, the effort has built new beds for wards where children come and stay for long-term treatment.

Aaya has witnessed the Sudanese crisis with her own eyes.  She has traveled to Port Sudan during the past two years and has volunteered locally to provide food and school supplies to internally displaced families in Sudan.  She considers it good fortune that she was personally able to pack food bags for family-sized parcels and personally distribute nearly 2,000 parcels to families over the summers.  Aaya proudly explains those parcels mean she helped feed 10,000 internally displaced people in Sudan with multiple meals.  She quickly states, however, that given the absence of aid from the international community, much more is needed.

Aaya resolutely articulates her stance as a future peace leader: “My commitment to peace is one of working to help counter the impact of conflict and violence.  Sudan is a country which, over the past two and a half years, has experienced some of the most intense forms of violence and destruction known to man.  People in Sudan have lost all sense of normalcy or ability to continue progressing.  And they have been largely forgotten by the world around them. In such a context, going against the silence to help the most vulnerable people in society is necessary.  This is why my commitment to peace is through the lens of doing work in Sudan.”