Blog

Brilliant fundraising idea: Bring A Book, Buy A Book!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:55:00 GMT

The poet Jorge Luis Borges said "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."

Most of us take for granted the simple escape into a great book. But many kids throughout Ethiopia learn to read without ever holding a book. Ethiopia Reads needs your help raising $50,000 so we can continue to plant libraries and put books in the hands of kids.

We are looking for 50 schools to participate in the Bring A Book Buy A Book (BABBAB) fundraising competition next fall. The school that raises the most money for Ethiopia Reads will win an on-site author visit from Jane Kurtz and Chris Kurtz! But there is no minimum or maximum you need to raise. We will be happy with $50 or $5,000!

BABBAB is an easy-to-run and simple fundraising concept that encourages reading by having students purchase each other’s gently used books for one dollar each. Proceeds go to Ethiopia Reads. The fundraiser is supplemented by age-appropriate curriculum, reading materials and art projects.

Bring A Book Buy A Book teaches your kids about global awareness, social service and reinforces a love of reading! Best of all, it’s a really easy model to implement and run.

If you would like to sign up or learn more about BABBAB, please contact us today: info@ethiopiareads.org. We have information to walk you through the planning of your fundraiser. We just need you to take the first step!

Heritage Camp kids take the initiative

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:59:00 GMT

Here's a letter we received from the proud Executive Director of the Heritage Camp. A big thank you to our amazing young supporters!

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Dear Ethiopia Reads:

It gives me great pleasure to inform you that a donation in the amount of $646 was made to your organization. This gift was generated by our middle school aged campers at the African Caribbean Heritage Camp (ACHC) in our More Than Me™ program this year. More Than Me™ is designed as a camp project that encourages the children to give back to a worthwhile organization helping children in their birth country. Many of our campers were born in Ethiopia and have been lovingly adopted by families in the U.S. ACHC is designed to help keep adopted children connected to their cultural roots.

The middle school campers did this on their own, by babysitting, doing chores around the house, walking dogs, and just saving pennies. One camper alone, Deonate Boswell, collected over $500 on his own for your organization. They also made fabulous bird houses that were sold to lucky parents and fellow campers at camp for additional funds. It was a very personal and heartfelt donation from our children to the children in Ethiopia you are helping.

The middle school campers and their parents are most impressed by what you do at Ethiopia Reads. Books were also donated by all of our campers, so the whole camp got to know about who you are and what you do. We were honored to partner with you this year, and support you as you keep up the amazing work you do for children in Ethiopia!

We at Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families feel very strongly that your organization is doing the kind of good work we want our camp kids to know about. It is a very special way to recognize who our kids are and where they came from, and to have them give back and feel like they are making a difference in their birth country. Thank you!

Best wishes,

Pam Sweetser
Executive Director

Inspired youth supports his father's childhood school in Ethiopia

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:02:00 GMT

Please enjoy this letter to Ethiopia Reads from the rightfully proud mother of young fundraiser Alexander Desta (pictured). A big thank you to Alex for his incredible work to support literacy in Ethiopia! We're very grateful to have supporters like you.

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Dear Ethiopia Reads,

Alex began his efforts to gather funds for the Felege Yordanos School library, after a conversation with his dad back in December. In that conversation he learned the fact that during his dad's elementary school years at the Felege Yordanos School in Ethiopia a large number of students had to share just one book in class.

He reflected on how blessed he is to be able to read and have access to so many books everyday of his life, while in other places of the world such as Ethiopia, students have very little or no access at all to books. Alexander decided he would do something about it and after some research, set out to collect funds from friends and family to benefit the students of the school where his father attended as a little boy. He began by saving his own money in a piggy bank and adding every coin he owned and thereafter received. He then created a flyer where he asked friends and family to help him collect funds to expand the book collection at his dad's childhood school.

In his research, we came across the Ethiopia Reads Organization website and were pleased to learn that the Felege Yordanos School was one of the sights were a library had recently been built. We also recalled our attendance at (Ethiopia Reads board chair) Mrs. Jane Kurtz's talk in Boston in 2005 where she spoke about the undertaking of Ethiopia Reads and the fact that Ethiopian children did not have much access to books. It is an honor for him and us (his parents) to be able to be part of such a great cause as is Ethiopia Reads.

Thank you,

Lillian Pinet

ER in NYC!

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:32:00 GMT

A December NYC fundraiser was a great success thanks to the hard work of Tigist Selam: chairperson of the event, actress, writer, and Ethiopia Reads board member. We'd like to thank the support of her friends and contacts that helped make the event great, too!

Funds were raised to support the Awassa Reading Center, a public children's library with many, many young fans!

Here are some pics from the event. All are by ER board member Matt Andrea.

"Terps for Ethiopia" a success!

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:12:00 GMT

"Terps for Ethiopia" is the name of what turned out to be a wildly successful fundraising event held Sunday February 26, 2012. "Terps" is the nickname for University of Maryland students and teams--the Terrapins. Two UM students, Aselefech Evans and Jared Ciner, coincidentally met while visiting Ethiopia last summer as part of an Ethiopia Reads group. Both came back from that trip determined to do something more and meaningful to help the children of Ethiopia. Jared, a senior from Colorado, is a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at UM, and enlisted his TKE brothers in putting together a fundraiser to support Ethiopia Reads and the Fregenet Foundation. A sorority Alpha Chi Omega (AXO) also became involved. Aselefech, adopted from Ethiopia when she was 6 years old and now a senior at UM, worked with the frat brothers and sorority sisters, providing her perspective on Ethiopia and the idea of giving back to her country of origin.

After many meetings, conversations, phone calls, and emails, the event took place at the Alumni Center at the University of Maryland. Approximately 300 people attended, enjoying Ethiopian food provided by the local Shagga restaurant, bidding on amazing silent auction items, listening to the UM a cappella group PandemoniUM, watching the Ethiopian dance group (Kegnet Cultural Group-Ashenafi Mitiku, Wubayehu Wurwuro, Thomas Young) perform the eskista, and generally enjoying a wonderful evening.

Members of TKE and AXO made this event incredibly successful by giving their time and energy to all the detail work: setting up, manning the registration tables, getting donations for the silent auction, being polite and friendly as they handed out sodas, helping with technology glitches around PowerPoint, organizing paperwork, cleaning up. They exemplified the best of service. Sintayehu Gebregziabher, a former librarian from the old Shola Library in Addis, was there also assisting the group any way he can.

Aselefech Evans was the keynote speaker, and talked about her personal journey from Ethiopia at 6 with her twin sister, and how much it meant to her to travel back to Ethiopia last summer and reunite with her birth family. She also talked about the beauty and potential of Ethiopia, which is all too often portrayed only as a place of famine, death, and disease. Ethiopia's greatest treasure, she said, "is the children. With books and education, their lives can change forever, and that's why I want to give back."

Many thanks to everyone who dreamed of, planned, and created the amazing "Terps for Ethiopia" event. Over $10,000 was raised for Ethiopia Reads and the Fregenet Foundation, and the proceeds will make a huge difference for the children of Ethiopia.

TAAA installs Ethiopia Reads board member as new officer

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:07:00 GMT

Ethiopia Reads congratulates Frew Tibebu, passionate ER board member and long time supporter of the organization, on his newly appointed post as an officer with the Tracy African American Association (TAAA).

The mission of TAAA in Tracy, California is to unite people of all ages and backgrounds through sponsorships and contributions to educational, cultural and social programs that foster awareness, diversity, and a cooperative environment that unite the Tracy Community.

"It's the mission of the Tracy African American Association (TAAA) which led me to get involved," says Tibebu. He has been a member for the last three years and has supported and marketed Ethiopia Reads through the Juneteenth Celebration.

Click here to learn about TAAA.

Click here for the press release.

A trip to the spa for literacy!

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:20:00 GMT

The Saturday, Nov. 6 fundraiser at Spa Mesu in Silver Spring, MD was a success. A big thanks to the wonderful people who made it happen, Spa Mesu, and everyone who attended and made it a great event!

Here are some pics from the fundraiser.

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Help plant a library at the Logiya Primary School in the Afar Region - home of Lucy!

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:30:00 GMT

A Logiya library could be a reality with your support!

Logiya is a town located in the Afar region of Ethiopia. A promising school in Logiya was selected to participate in a program that partners Ethiopia's Ministry of Education, USAID and Ethiopia Reads. With $10,000, a new library with books, shelving and librarian training will give children the chance to read!

Here are a few images of the school. Please read further down for a letter from the Afar Forum.

A letter from the Afar Forum:

The objective of the sponsors of this noble act is to furnish the Logiya school with a functional library, books, shelving and some training. The organization is collaborating with the department of education, the UNHCR through their TLMP program (Textbook Learning Materials Program) and these entities are the one's that did the selection for Logyia to be a model library.

"Depending on funding, we are planning to do an assessment in April-July of 2012 and implement the next half of 2012." Said Ethiopia Reads Country Director Dana Roskey.

The goal is to raise a minimum of $10,000 to cover the cost of books, furniture, shipment, transportation and training.

The afar Forum call upon the Afar diaspora and friends of Afars to help realize the project.

Anyone who is interested to help can contact:
Afar Forum at afar_forum@yahoo.com
or Mr. Frew Tibebu at Frew@Ethiopiaareads.org or by telephone at 1- 209-629-3765

Mr. Frew spearheads the project and is looking forward to your help and generous donation. Read more here.

Storytime with Lois, Ethiopia Peace Corps Veteran

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:50:00 GMT

Greetings, book lovers! We have a guest blogger today with a great life story full of experiences. Lois Shoemaker has fund-raised for Ethiopia Reads to support the Awassa Reading Center: a rare public library that's full of eager, young readers in southern Ethiopia.

Lois recently went to Washington, DC for the Returned Peace Corps Gathering. She's in the image below during the Sunday walk featuring Country of Service flags. She served in Ethiopia as a teacher from 1962-64.

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"Oh, just hang up! It’s probably one of my senior students calling to tease us.” It was, in fact, Harris Wofford, calling from the White House. He was one of President Kennedy’s special assistants working with Sargent Shirver to “make the Peace Corps happen”. Time: June, 1962.

My fiance’ and I had heard JFK’s quote just a few weeks before on the car radio: “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. Life was forever changed from that day forward.

We said “Yes!” to that call, trained for eight weeks at Georgetown University and were then sent to Asmara for our two-year teaching assignment. Amazing vistas... and a whole new life began. One of my favorite “spots” during those two years was the Itegue Menen Hospital Orphanage, where I did some extra volunteering. Yes, the very one mentioned in the recent best seller, “Cutting for Stone”. It was located near where we lived and also close to our assigned school, Haile Selassie First Secondary School.

Life was changing indeed, and to this day, I still feel and enjoy many connections made so many years ago. Ethiopia Reads is a wonderful addition to my Ethiopia connections!

Jane Kurtz guest blogs on Gone Reading

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Check out children's author, ER board member, and long-time supporter extraordinaire JANE KURTZ's guest blog on GONE READING, a book lover's blog by Bradley Wirz.

Click here!

4-H Project Shares the Message: “One World, Many Stories”

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:41:00 GMT

A 4-H project recently reached out to Ethiopian readers. Fourth grader Brooke Nafziger saw an opportunity to support Ethiopia Reads when she enrolled in her local 4-H club’s Reading Program. She decided to collect books for Ethiopian children after hearing a presentation by children’s author and Ethiopia Reads board member, Jane Kurtz. Brooke knew the project would fulfill the Community Service Project requirements and help children in Ethiopia.

She coordinated her effort with her local library’s summer reading program, “One World, Many Stories.” Brooke invited LeAnn Clark, Ethiopia Reads volunteer, to tell about her travels to Ethiopia to children at the Goessel Public Library. LeAnn shared pictures and artifacts collected on her visits. Then Brooke prepared posters and a box for the book collection at the library.

At the end of the summer, over a thousand books had been collected for all ages. “When we totaled the books, I felt proud that I had made a difference for kids in Ethiopia,” said Brooke. Her mother, Susan, was her biggest supporter in the project. Several volunteers, including Goessel librarian Laura Dailey, helped sort and pack the books. Sometime soon, eager readers will be enjoying the books collected by a Kansas Reading Angel and her fantastic 4-H project!

Thank you, Brooke, for your amazing accomplishment!

Bay area supporters celebrate Ethiopian New Year

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:59:00 GMT

Enkutatash!

Here is a collection of photos from the event.

A big thanks to everyone who helped out with the event, and to Bay Area parents for bringing their kids to the Ethiopian New Year (Enkutatash) celebration in San Jose.

Interested in joining the group in the Bay area? Contact Ethiopia Reads board member Frew Tibebu at Frew@EthiopiaReads.org to learn more!

The adventure of the books

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:46:00 GMT

Kids in Ethiopia love their books.

They love to read about nature, adventure, animals, science, and everything in between. Most children in Ethiopia don't have books to read at home or school, but--thanks to recent generous donations to Ethiopia Reads--some lucky students now have libraries at their school where they can read and study many different books. They read, read, read until the books are worn out.

Kind people from all over the U.S. and the world collect books for the students in Ethiopia. Sometimes they have book sorting parties, where friends and families come together to pack up boxes.

Montview Presbyterian Church in Denver, Colorado is having a sorting party in these pictures. They packed up thousands of books and sent them on their way.

Books then go to a LeAnn, a volunteer in Kansas. She catalogs, sorts and stores the books and when they reach around 40,000 books, LeAnn and her husband pack them up and forklift the boxes into a shipping container. It's a lot of work and can be really exhausting!

Then the shipping container sets sail across the Atlantic Ocean. A couple months later it arrives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Thanks to "program general" donations, which aren't restricted to a specific project, huge trucks and equipment move the container to a place where staff and volunteers unpack the boxes.

From there, the boxes are delivered to Ethiopia Reads libraries in schools all over Ethiopia.

The boxes are unpacked and books are placed on book shelves.

Guess what happens next...

...the books get read!

• Support our programs by donating today •

A very special thanks to Better World Books for funding one of the containers full of books!

A Book in their Hands

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:03:00 GMT

A Book in Their Hands-

On April 17th a benefit for an Ethiopia Reads/Tesfa project was held in Los Angeles. Celebrated children’s author Jane Kurtz (a board member of Ethiopia Reads) spoke about the challenges and joys of bringing books and education to the children of Ethiopia.

Renowned Ethiopia artist, Yadese Bojia spoke about his own life in Ethiopia. He also donated a painting that was the evening’s centerpiece, ‘Nebab’ Amharic for ‘Reading’. Live, silent, and online auctions of art and photography brought in several thousand dollars for the school.

Musicians, including Ana Egge, performed for the crowd of over one hundred people - primarily leaders of the Ethiopian community in Los Angeles , and members of the Ethiopia adoptive families community. Guests expressed their common goals over sambusas, and injera, and toasted to a new beginning for hundreds of children in Kololo Ethiopia, with sini full of Ethiopian coffee.

The party was held at The Electric Lodge in the heart of Venice Beach. Over a dozen people signed up to be future sponsors of the school once it is up and running. Construction will begin this fall in Ethiopia.

Stay tuned for fabulous pictures from the event!

Classroom idea: what's an empty library feel like?

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:11:00 GMT

From our friends at The Ellis School in Pittsburgh, who just sent us a donation from a very successful fundraiser:

We did a skit on Friday to introduce the idea behind our fundraiser. A group of us pretended that Ethiopia Reads invited us to visit an Ethiopian school. We were so excited to look around and when we made it to the library, we were surprised and saddened at the empty room. Lots of ad-libbing, but we got our point across. We said to one another, "I bet our friends back at Ellis would want to help us do something about this!'' Our audience erupted into shouts of "YES - WE WANT TO HELP!" It was very cute.

Thank you for your great idea and support!