SUPPORTERS

AHEAD’S FIFTH ANNIVERSSARY CELEBRATION

The Association for Higher Education and Development (AHEAD) celebrated its fifth year on 18 September 2004. The anniversary celebrations coincided with AHEAD’s popular fund-raising event, known as Addis Bazaar. Like the previous three Addis Bazaars, this one was also held at the Christ Church Cathedral, 439 Queen Street in Ottawa.

A buffet dinner of delectable Ethiopian cuisine was served to our guests who enjoyed the food so much that all guests were invited to help themselves as much as they want, an offer taken by several guests. Addis Bazaar, as always offered a number of Ethiopian artifacts including gold and silver jewelry, bed covers and table cloths, handicrafts, coffee and tea and many other items brought from Ethiopia.

Mr. Temesghen Hailu, the President of AHEAD, in his welcoming speech spoke about the members of AHEAD and their commitment to the aims and goals of AHEAD. He said that AHEAD is a personal crusade multiplied by its members each of who has their own reasons to want to dedicate considerable time and financial resources to achieve AHEAD’s objectives. Temesghen spoke about Selamawit, his beloved and beautiful sister whose young life was taken away from us because of cancer. But, instead of burying himself in sorrow, Temesghen decided to do something about it and that led to the creation of AHEAD, whose objective s to support Medical Students in Ethiopia. Although all of us feel the loss of Selamawit, we are heartened because we know that many lives in Ethiopia can be saved in the future because her passing, as bitter as it was, also became the reason for the creation of AHEAD, an association dedicated to further Ethiopia’s needs for medical doctors, albeit in a very small way.

A highlight of the celebration was the recognition, for the first time, of the Phil Rodrigue family as Friends of AHEAD. It is to be recalled that AHEAD has, since its inception, been recognizing individuals as ‘Friends of AHEAD’ for their support of the Association and for their contribution to the fulfillment of AHEAD’s objectives. Although AHEAD have recognized individual members of the Rodrigue family, the members of AHEAD believed that the Rodrigue family’s contribution was beyond what can be fairly expected thus, the need to recognize the whole family as Friend’s of AHEAD. This occasion was used to pay tribute to Cathy Belanger, who died in 2002. Ainalem Tebeje, paying tribute to Cathy spoke about Cathy’s love for fellow persons and her many good deeds dedicated towards benefiting others.

The keynote speech was delivered by the Honourable Senator Donald Oliver, Patron of AHEAD. The Honourable Senator Oliver spoke about why he decided to support AHEAD, a non-political, voluntary organization based in Canada, established five years ago with a simple but enduring motto of: “A book at a time, a student a year”. He highlighted the fact that, under this motto, AHEAD operates a book shipment to three medical faculties in Jimma, Gondar and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and has so far awarded bursaries to a total of 72 medical students. Speaking of AHEAD’s achievements, Senator Oliver highlighted some of the research conducted by AHEAD on the “Diaspora’s Contribution to Development in Africa – Focusing in Ethiopia.” Quoting Ainalem’s (Vice President of AHEAD) presentation of the findings of the study, Senator Oliver highlighted the reasons behind the problems faced by many African countries and specifically Ethiopia, which the study found to have lost 74% of its professionals, including doctors, technical experts, educators, skilled managers, etc.

Senator Oliver’s speech was followed by a reading of Poem by Haile Belai entitled (“Y’abay Neger) Y’abay Neger (Tales of the Nile), uses the metaphor of the Blue Nile (Abay), a river which flows out of Ethiopia, contributing 75% of the waters of the Nile River and benefits Ethiopia little, if any, to lament the loss of the educated class of Ethiopia. AHEAD’s research on the Diaspora shows that Ethiopia loses 74% of its highly qualified professionals to greener pastures all over the world, a loss which prompted AHEAD to advocate “virtual participation” highlighted in the poem. The poem was followed by a recitation on a violin by a young Ethiopian Canadian, Sosina Melaku who, although only a few weeks since she started taking lessons was willing to entertain the guests of AHEAD.

Finally, guests were invited to join in Ethiopian dancing and, many of the guests, including those of non-Ethiopian origin were seen to have mastered the various Ethiopian dances.

AHEAD would like to use this opportunity to heartily thank its supporters and sponsors. The following individuals have been on the side of AHEAD since its inception and have contributed towards its success from the very beginning:

Our heart-felt thanks also goes to our sponsors for their support which made the fifth anniversary celebration a complete success. They are:

Scotiabank

Interlangue

Country Grocer

Ethiopian Embassy

Christ Church Cathedral

Horn of Africa

Ethiopiafirst

John Herwood

Professor Joseph Manyoni

Rahel Gezahegn, Mussie Hailu and Abel Hailu

Betty Belai