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| Uniting Ethiopian youth, an exclusive interview with samuel By: GM Selassie BOSTON, MA, USA - By now, many have heard of an extraordinary young man of Ethiopian origin, Samuel Gebru . Despite being only 14 years of age, Samuel Gebru maintains his academic excellence, humanitarian and political/diplomatic lifestyles all together. Samuel Gebru was born on 20 November 1991 in Khartoum, Sudan in East Africa. At age 3.5, in 1995, Samuel Gebru came to the US with his mother. Since then, he has lived in the Boston area for 11 years. Asking the aspiring ambassador whether he wanted to move back to Ethiopia, Samuel gave me this response: "I wish to go back to Ethiopia, however, after I have completed my education. When I return to Ethiopia I wish to live in Addis Ababa so I could be closer to the affairs of Ethiopia and Africa, since Addis Ababa is not only the seat of government for the Ethiopian Government but also for the African Union, UNECA and other significant organizations." The aspiring Worldwide Youth Ambassador of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has many goals to achieve, both in his humanitarian life and his diplomatic/political life. In this exclusive talk with Mr. Gebru, he told me what he plans to do. "Well, my organization, The Ethiopian Team, has unfortunately collapsed due to the shortage of funds from businesses, people and other entities. I am trying to see how the organization can rebuff itself, however, it is unfortunate that the organization is also falling into inactivity. I wish to express my sincere desire to help Ethiopia in the development field but without money one cannot do anything. I have also decided to change The Ethiopian Team's mission, goal and policies. The biggest improvement is that The Ethiopian Team won't raise funds for Ethiopian development, well at least it won't be the central mission. Secondly, I aim to push the organization's goals into networking Ethiopian youth, promoting democratic thinking, sharing experiences, and learning about Ethiopia - her culture, people and history. In essence it will not be a humanitarian organization that raises funds for the development of Ethiopia; it will be a 'youth organization' that will do the above mentioned things." Samuel Gebru plans on re-establishing "The Ethiopian Team" into "The Gebru Foundation." It is a bold initiative that he plans to create with some of his partners in the Boston area and throughout the world. "The Gebru Foundation will be a non-profit registered foundation in the US and Ethiopia. Its aims and mission is pretty simple, The Gebru Foundation will be a group of Ethiopian youth that work to network all Ethiopian youth, share experiences, hold discussion forums, have culture-oriented events and teach the Ethiopian youth about their history. We plan to work in Ethiopia with two organizations that I met with while in Addis Ababa as the Foreign Affairs Minister's VIP Guest from August 7-14, 2006; The Ethiopian Youth Association for Peace and Development as well as the Vision for Peace, Democracy and Development." While in Addis Ababa, Samuel had the luxury of meeting Mr. Sehul Teferi (President) and Mr. Girma Tadele (Public Relations) of the Vision for Peace, Democracy and Development and Mr. Abebe Ayalew of the Ethiopian Youth Association for Peace and Development. "Both of these organizations," he says, "shared to me their experiences and told me what they need from the government, people and diaspora. These two organizations had no where to turn to until the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF; party-in-charge of the Ethiopian government) took them in, gave them a budget and an office." Samuel says that The Gebru Foundation will be up and running within the next coming weeks and will begin to host and co-host events in the Boston area. Although he didn't want to go into the specifics, Samuel disclosed that The Gebru Foundation is working with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of African and African-American Research at Harvard University to plan and co-host a screening of "Wonders of the African World" with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "I wish not to give any details, however, we are working with Harvard and Dr. Gates to screen the Ethiopian portion of his six-country tour in Africa. This is a remarkable initiation on our behalf because Dr. Henry Gates would like to work with us and we plan to have a question/answer time at the end where the audience can pose history and culture related questions. Dr. Gates was kind enough to commend me and show his interest in working with us." Samuel continued on and said that it would likely be in late October, November or even December. "Harvard is taking this seriously!" With his feet grounded in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) and his mind and hands in Ethiopia, Samuel Gebru is working on uniting the Ethiopian youth regardless of the political affiliation to work hand-in-hand to tackle the "common issues." He says that there is a great deal of work to be done and that it should be done with all people and entities working together. On another note, Samuel Gebru is also trying to assist the IRROB organization in their urgent appeal to all people for the recent floods in Ethiopia. "In my report presented to my inviting minister, Mr. Seyoum Mesfin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, I said that my aim is to network the youth and promote Ethiopianism in all forms. This is what I plan to do. With the help of my partners worldwide as well as the Ethiopian diplomatic corps members in Germany, Sweden, Israel and Addis Ababa as well as other countries, I wish to promote my mission and expand it." Samuel said that he was disappointed in the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington, DC for their failure to deliver services. "It had telephoned the embassy a few weeks ago asking for an application form to register The Gebru Foundation in Ethiopia however they never gave me anything. The clerk that I had talked to took down my contact information and said she'd give it to me, however, nothing was sent. I am extremely angered at the behavior of the embassy of Ethiopia in Washington, DC and I hope that something can be done from the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Addis Ababa. I would like to work with the embassy to enhance my activities but as Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said when referring to the Eritrean-Ethiopian situation 'It takes two to tango.' In my case this is true too, I need the embassy to work with me however, my requests are literally falling on deaf ears. This makes my job extremely difficult in networking the youth without the embassy assisting me; however I m managing to bypass it, not that I want to but I have to." Nevertheless, Samuel said that Ethiopia holds a bright future ahead of her: "I can rest assured that Ethiopia has an excellent future ahead of her. I have been following up with the TPLF, ANDM, SEPDM, OPDO and EPRDF conferences that took place in September and am glad to hear that their main priorities for this conference was youth, women and development. I hope that all Ethiopians can work for a better future and rambling in front of 10 Downing Street or the White House will never help." Samuel is an extraordinary kid, the most amazing part is that he is ONLY 14! (end) |
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