EDA Activities Association of Disabled Eritreans (ADE) Held a Successful Fundraising Event in Chicago, Illinoi, USA
December 9, 2012
Association of Disabled Eritreans (ADE) Chicago Chapter, held a successful fundraising event on December 8, 2012 in Chicago. A number of Chicago and its environs residents took part in the event.
Association of Disabled Eritreans (ADE), a non-profit organization, registered in France provides humanitarian assistance to war disabled Eritreans that are living in a shelter center at Kassala, Eastern Sudan.
The event included presentation on the current state of affairs of the disabled Eritreans, as well as problems Eritrean refugee children face at a time when the UNHCR assistance is no longer available.
In an effort to bring awareness to the importance of the fundraising event, members of ADE presented video clips, showing interviews conducted with disabled Eritreans in Kassala, Sudan. The video clips streamed through TV screen also showed Wodisherifey Eritrean refugee children attending school and conducting other school activities.
The presentation and the video clips were very informative, and board members of ADE made every effort to communicate the purpose of the event. The participants were remarkable and made the fundraising event remarkably successful with their monetary contributions of $4000.00, deposited in ADE’s account. The total raised is expected to grow as the amount pledged gets collected.
All the contributions raised in this event will go to the “disabled Eritreans’ center” in Kassala. ADE board members express their deep gratitude for everyone’s kindness and contributions.
New_School Year 2012
630 Eritrean Refugee Children Start New School Year at Wad-Sherifey, Sudan
By
Osman Ahmed, School Supervisor
The teaching staff and school committee of elders are pleased to announce that the Wad Sherifey Refugee School in Eastern Sudan started its 28th academic school year in mid-June by enrolling 630 Eritrean refugee children.
The school, which uses Arabic, Tigrigna and English as the media of instruction based on adapted Eritrean curriculum, usually enrolls more than 600 children at the start of every school year but ends with a bit lesser number because of the mobility of refugee families due to change of residence in Sudan or chances of third-country resettlement. For instance, the last academic year was started with 623 children in June 2011 and ended in March 2012 with 573.
A little over 42% of the newly enrolled students are females. The vast majority of the students are in elementary grades 1-6, and those in grade 7 and 8 who are taught in English constitute only about 70.
The Wad-Sherifey Eritrean Refugee School, founded in 1984 by the Eritrean Red Cross-Crescent Society (ERCCS) still administering it, used to receive adequate budgetary support of international charities until the independence of Eritrea. But in the years that followed, the school faced critical funding constraints. In 2005, the Geneva-based ASEE (Association Suisse Enfance-Erythrée) with partnership and generosity of Aba Marino Haile of Milano and his friends at ASPE-ONLUS in Italy helped to renovate the school buildings and since then continued to cover major
parts of the running costs. This year, however, ASEE and its Italian partners related to the Catholic Church are having difficulties of obtaining funds and have advised the school administration to appeal to other beneficiaries.
This year, school equipment, including the student benches, are in bad shape and in need of most urgent replacement. But more serious need is for modest funds for the renovation of the class rooms, surrounding walls and the water supply system. The disquieting situation of the school building can be seen in the pictures below.
The school administration has proposed to ASEE and to other old friends of the school that include the Eritrean Democratic Association (EDA), a non-profit association registered in USA, to help fund a partial renovation project costing only €14,500 so that the learning environment at Wad-Sherifey could be improved soon.
On top of that, the writer of this report and other members of the school administration, who belong to the ERCCS, wish to appeal to all Eritreans to come to the help of this worthy school which throughout the years helped thousands of refugee children from poor families to go to school.
In particular, Eritreans who happened to start their early education at Wad-Sherifey are called upon to form associations that can help the school until the situation in Eritrea is normalized.
Your individual or collective support can reach us through the following addresses:
In Europe
ASEE Association Suisse Enfance-Erythrée
11, ch. De Vers,
1228 Plan-les Ouates – Suisse
Postal Bank: CCP No. 17- 492816-8
Email: Pierro Winter bluprint1@mac.com
WWW.ASEE.CH
In North America
5438 Giuffrida CT
San Jose, CA 95123
U.S.A.
Or email at:
eritreacare@yahoo.com
WWW.Eritreacare.org
Eritrean Democratic Association, Inc. (EDA) Addressed the North America Eritrean
People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) Regional Conference at Radisson Hotel in
Indianapolis, IN
A Delegation representing the Board of Directors for the Eritrean Democratic Association addressed the Eritrean
regional conference that gathered at Radisson Hotel in Indianapolis, IN on June 10, 2012. The conference attendees representing Eritrean chapters affiliated with EDA, Inc. arrived from various US and Canadian cities.
The Delegation presented the mission and activities of the non-profit corporation, EDA, Inc., focusing on the following
current active projects:
• Supporting the Wad-Sherifey Refugee School at Kassala, Sudan which currently educates up to 600 refugee
Eritreans from 1st through 8th grade.
• Supporting the center for the wounded veterans and disabled Eritreans in Kassala, Sudan.
• Supporting the project of sponsoring refugee children.
• Human rights advocacy campaign.
The Board of directors’ delegation further explained the situation of the Eritrean people under the dictatorial regime of President Issaias Afewerki that is causing a large influx of Eritreans to the neighboring countries and beyond to escape repression. Over the last twenty years, the regime has been conscripting Eritreans between the ages of 15 and 50 to an indefinite mandatory military service. This never-ending forced military conscription has caused and continues to cause a widespread national disaster, depriving Eritrean youth the fundamental right to social, economic, civil and political participation, including leading a decent life in the country they love.
The delegation also gave highlights of Eritrean refugees who are languishing in the refugee camps of neighboring
countries – in Northern Ethiopia and Eastern Sudan. The delegation further underlined that the majority of Eritrean refugees are increasingly trying to reach European countries and Israel across the Sinai desert and high seas, risking being the victim of human traffickers and Arab Bedouins. Over the last ten years, many Eritreans have fallen prey to human traffickers in which they were either held for ransom, killed, sold, or harvested for their organs. The delegation called on the participants to help stop this national tragedy by appealing to the international human rights organizations and UN.
The delegation also presented EDA’s primary focus to help the Wad-Sherifey School by holding fund-raising events to ensure a sustained service of teaching to Eritrean Refugees. A 12 minute video clip was shown to participants with a purpose to inform them about the budget shortfall the Wad-Sherifey Eritrean refugee school is facing for the fiscal year of 2012/2013. Since its foundation in 1984, the school has operated on funds entirely contributed by private individuals, and by members of EDA in partnership with nonprofit humanitarian organizations whose mission is to help educate refugee children, as there is no state run school in the camp.
The school uses contributed funds for high priority expenditures of the school, which includes:
• Students’ textbooks and supplies
• Salary for 18 fulltime instructors, including one school administrator and his assistant
• Two fulltime school guards
• To provide clean drinking water for students
At the end of the conference, the delegation held a successful fundraising event for the Wad-Sherifey refugee school in Kassala, Sudan and raised well in excess of expectation.
Human Rights: The conference participants remembered and expressed their concerns to the member of EPDP
leadership, Mohamed Ali Ibrahim, whose whereabouts is unknown since February 12, 2012. He disappeared from
Kassala, Sudan where he resided with his family. In addition, the participants urged The Government of Sudan and international organizations to help locate and bring him back safely to his family.