The Ethiopian Foundation

The Applications are coming in of really great caliber of students. This year we will have only three members of the TEF team to choose the best applicant for the scholarship award. Another small group will focus on our overseas giving and another on outreach of donors for additional funding. Small groups are easier to handle and communicate better online. Organizations and schools who have worked in smaller groups get a lot more accomplished than larger, less intimate groups. “Divide and Conquer” has been a cliche but extremely effective tool when one wants effective and efficient results.

We are starting the search for our second year recipient of 2012 TEF Scholarship Award. To send in your request for an April Application, you can email your request at:
info@theethiopianfoundation.org or send your written request to P.O. Box 2331, Fairfax, VA 22031.

Requirements:
-Priority to Ethiopian Students.
-Grades must be above average.
-Must be entering or currently enrolled in College.
-Reside in the DC, MD,VA Metro area.

We can’t wait to see who this years winner will be.
-The Ethiopian Foundation Team

We are so happy to be able to send out the Scholarship disbursements to Nathaniel Fikru. What a wonderful young man. We can only hope to do as well in upcoming years, in choosing quality recipients such as Nathaniel. We found out he took 18 credits his first semester! He is back in school as of last week and stated he used the time on his break to catch up!

There is no slowing him down. He has set a course and is reluctant to settle for anything less. What determination. A lot of us can learn from this young man. We will have to help him not to burn out : ) The TEF team is now looking ahead to our second part of the organization “Ethiopia Giving”. We will then rotate towards our second year of scholarship application, which begin in April. So Stay tuned.

Best,
The Ethiopian Foundation Team

Happy Holidays! We had a successful fundraiser for our scholarship recipient. Many influential persons were in attendance and we had a wonderful and bonding time through the personal talk with Dr. Ayele. He did a phenomenal job. It was great seeing all the influential Ethiopian elites who came to support our cause.

I want to thank the Team of TEF for making our first event a success. They are amazing and hand picked by fate and the powers above. Our next meeting will be in January to disperse funds and to set our project for “Ethiopia Giving”, our monetary gifts raised for helping organizations in Ethiopia who help mothers and children.

I can’t wait for our next batch of Candidates this Spring who will apply for TEF’s 2012 scholarship award. We will be also announcing the organization(s) in Ethiopia who will be voted as the next recipient of benevolent funds. Thanks for your continued support.

Best,
The Ethiopian Foundation

Come Celebrate Our First Fundraising Event…..
“The Making of a Scholar.”
A conversation with Dr. Petros Ayele, MD
December 10, 20ll
@7:00pm Sharp, $30 Fee
The Regents Park Club House and Sun Room
Fairfax, VA 22031
*Sponsored by The Ethiopian Foundation
A 501 (c) (3) non-profit Organization
RSVP: info@theethiopianfoundation.org

All the members were present and excited to attend our first meeting. It was a cold day in September and kind of dreary outside. We all arrived at the Martian Luther King Jr. Library, in DC, ready to get our hands dirty and to hear our guest speaker, Nathaniel Fikru. He brought his mother who appeared to be a gentle and warm person. She expressed her gratitude to those in the room, who were looking to raise money to help her son through college.

After Nathaniel’s moving speech and interview of questions from our panel, a fundraising event was suggested before the end of the year. We dubbed the Scholarship as a “Text Book Scholarship Fund”. I believe we will be the first to have this descriptive nomenclature for our continued mission work. Please look forward to our first fundraising event projected December 3, 2011. The location is TBA.

The Theme will be the same as our over all mission, “The Making of a Scholar”. I hope you will join us for this monumental event. Thank you for your continued support and comments to our site.

Best,
The Ethiopian Foundation Team
Michael, Solomon, Dejen, Tesfa, Teru, Lulit, Ermias, & Hirut

@EthiopianFnd

I love hearing the stories. I am inspired by tireless efforts. I am amazed at seeing the transformations. I am moved by the small seed that becomes a thriving forest. She may be the youngest person I know who became a humanitarian at a very young age. Hearing Senedu Araya-Sellassi speak about her experience as a child is inspiring. She watched her mother and father help the poor and accompanying a teacher to an orphanage that planted a seed that would become her passion and drive for life. She remembers watching their little faces. She told me that image stayed with her for decades. She wanted to take them all home with her! Although she couldn’t she could at least adopt one, right? So she did. Her and her family loved and cared for him. Senedu confided in me that she honestly wishes she could have done more to help and maybe even adopt more children to bring them out of poverty with providing tools for life and education.

I have been meaning to interview her and her organization Vision on Africa (VoA). One day, out of the blue she calls me to provide encouragement on our work with the scholarship program. I felt so honored that she would take the time to call me in a day and age when you can text, email, tweet, and befriend on fb. She called and we chatted like old friends. I love that she is so down to earth. She will be traveling shortly to Ethiopia and called again to say she will be leaving. There is so much to be admired about her. I wanted to do a more in depth interview but will refer you to her recent interview with another VoA acronym, the prestigious, Voice of America. Vision on Africa: Culmination of a Little Girl’s Dream You can also hear her interview (on MP3) on the upper right, of her interview with Voice of America webpage.

We will have to get an update to her work when she returns. We wish her well as it is always a pleasure seeing Ethiopians providing love and wellness. The reason I started this website or “Log of Leaders” was to highlight the work being done within the Ethiopian community. This is research that shows heroes like Senedu and those interviewed on TEF, really do exist and we are grateful for their sacrifice.
Vision on Africa
Facebook

Melkam Addis Amet

Congratulations The Ethiopian Foundation! We are now considered a non-profit, tax exempt/charitable, 501(c) (3), legal organization with the State of Virginia. We envisioned and worked hard for this monumental event. This morning we were informed by the State of Virginia of our acceptance as an official non-profit and I am very excited. We have a lot to talk about at our next meeting in September. Our work is two fold, Scholarships provided to Ethiopians here within the VA/MD/DC area and our continued charitable work, abroad in Ethiopia.

Thank you for your support!
The Ethiopian Foundation Team
& Our Trip to Ethiopia

TEF & OTTE

We at The Ethiopian Foundation (TEF) are happy to announce our first year of providing Scholarships within the Ethiopian community. We first started our mission two years ago by providing contributions to those vulnerable in Ethiopia. This year we are branching out and providing scholarships to Ethiopian students within the DC/VA/MD Metropolitan area, those who have worked hard during their academic year, and are dedicated to helping their community by giving back to the next generation. So far we have selected two candidates. The first is Nathaniel Fikru.

Nathaniel Fikru-Scholarship Candidate

This young man is amazing. He wants to change the world through Engineering and Robotics. He is a Student Tutor at the Mariam Program featured earlier this year. He plans to go back to Ethiopia and help build his country. Upon meeting him last fall, he appears shy but he is dynamic. I remember my first meeting with him was the attitude of “what can we do to help the students increase their grades”. He called up a classmate on his cell phone and invited him to become a student tutor. The classmate asked if he could also bring another school mate with him to the tutoring center. Nathaniel first asked, “How’s his grades?” He then proceeded with much grace, “let’s get together first and then we can discuss this other possible tutor”. I must admit I was immediately impressed. Nathaniel had no idea that TEF Scholarship program would be launched this summer.

Nathaniel tutoring math to a 6th grader

We will need help in meeting the goals of the two candidates. (The second candidate will be revealed at the next post). We want these young scholars to be supported in their educational dreams. Here in the states they have us as resources. We would be disappointed if we were not able to reach our goal as they are affected. They deserve our commitment to assist them in reaching their dreams for higher education, like everyone else within the US, who aspires academically. We at TEF are doing our part. Please be a part of history with us. To donate, make checks payable to The Ethiopian Foundation, P.O. Box 2331, Fairfax, VA 22031.

Sincerely,
The Ethiopian Foundation (TEF) Team
Petrina (Hirut), Micheal, Lulit, Deju, Ermias, Teru, Solomon, Tesfa

It is my pleasure to present to you The Liya Kebede Foundation. The staff are welcoming and hardworking. The website is informative and well presented. The Foundation is life changing and awe inspiring. How wonderful to be able to interview a foundation that advocates, educates and serves to improve the health of mothers and children worldwide. Below you can see our interview with The Liya Kebede Foundation. We have also included the foundation’s website, their Facebook page, a blog post highlighting Liya Kebede the Super Model & activist as well as her starring role in the new movie Desert Flower.

Can you give us some history about the Foundation such as when and how it started as well as the areas of Ethiopia being helped?

I was approached in 2005 by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be their Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. I accepted and traveled with them to meet health workers all over the world who struggle with little to no equipment or medicines to save lives. I met children who lost their mothers and husbands who lost their wives. I had the privilege to tell their stories to world leaders and advocate for maternal health.

And as I shared my stories about what I’d seen, I realized that I needed to create a way for people who realize how wrong this is to get involved. Soon after, I launched the Liya Kebede Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to reduce maternal mortality worldwide. We work to educate policy makers about maternal mortality and to prioritize maternal newborn and child health on their agenda; to promote proven, low-cost strategies to save the lives; and to support training programs to educate health workers and increase the capacity of the health care system.

What are your goals for this year and next year? What progress do you want to see or accomplish in your organization’s future goals?

Ethiopia is currently increasing its health care infrastructure at a rapid pace, with great success, and the Foundation is supporting this effort by targeting two new health care facilities—Durame Hospital and Awassa Maternal Health Clinic. We work to ensure the facilities have the supplies and equipment they need, that they have medical personnel who are properly trained in emergency obstetric care, and that the population living in the surrounding regions can access these facilities.

We will continue to support these projects, and take the lessons we learn and incorporate them into our advocacy work. Our goal is for these projects to be self-sustaining, and for the Foundation to continue to find ways to work with community partners and the Ministry of Health to create a health care system that meets the needs of pregnant women and mothers.

Have you had any difficulties with facilitating this organization or is there something you have learned during this process?

We continue to believe it is best to work with on-the-ground partners in Ethiopia to implement the specific health care initiatives, and for the focus of the Foundation to be on advocacy and financial support.

Is there anything you would like to add that you feel is important to mention?

We are encouraged by the recent attention and focus on addressing maternal mortality, and strongly believe this is a largely preventable tragedy. There are proven low-cost interventions that save mothers’ lives, and we need our mothers to ensure our children, our families and our communities can thrive.

The Liya Kebede Foundation
Facebook/The Liya Kebede Foundation
The Ambassador, The Visionary, The Super Model
The Movie: “Desert Flower”