Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Adwa Victory Anniversary celebration in Washington DC

Big congratulatory message to Ethiopian Heritage Society in North America for a very impressive event celebrating the Adwa Victory Anniversary at Georgetown University Conference Center in Washington D.C. last Sunday. Turn out was more than expected. The presentations both live & thru Skype were very informative & intellectually stimulating. The patriotic theme reflected thru the dramatic & musical performances were timely. In general, the ambiance was great, almost everyone that I had talked to had positive thing to say about it. One of the highlights of this year's celebration for me was the scholarship award given to a student who reflected & wrote essay on Adwa Victory. EHSNA recently announce that it had established a scholarship fund and invited high school & freshmen college students to reflect & write essay on the significance of the Adwa Victory.
I have been advocating for creation of similar kind fund to be awarded to those Ethiopian American kids who have made extraordinary efforts in learning & keeping Ethiopian heritage or show unique talent. The idea was to invite the youngsters or their parents to submit audio or video recording of the kids performing or reciting and those selected by competent judges will be sent invitation to the annual heritage festival held in July in Washington, DC their full or partial expenses covered. I want kids such as the ones you see here to be invited during the annual heritage festival for keeping Ethiopian musical tradition alive. Having them during the Festival would encourage other kids born to Ethiopian parents to emulate or follow the foot steps of these kids. But to be fair, I will leave it to potential judges to select who would be the winners.
Hopefully EHSNA will consider this idea & work toward creating the fund in the near future. I hope to discuss the initiative with some details. I am also ready to play my part in this and will be willing to donate seed money upon which the fund can be built.