The White House event highlighted nonprofit programs that are making a difference. Alfa Demmellash was invited after White House staffers saw her being profiled on CNN.
Demmellash runs Rising Tide Capital, a company in New Jersey that helps low-income entrepreneurs start or grow their businesses.
Her organization “helps struggling mom-and-pop entrepreneurs get loans, run their businesses and improve their profit margins,” Obama told the gathering at the East Room of the White House.
“Seventy percent of their clients are single moms. All of them rely on their businesses to support their families. And so far, Rising Tide has helped 250 business owners in the state of New Jersey.
“Imagine if they could help 500 or 1,000 or more … all across America. If we empower organizations like these, think about the number of young people … whose lives we can change, the number of families whose livelihoods we can boost.”
Obama pointed out Demmelash to the crowd with his trademark self-deprecating humor: “We’ve got Alfa Demmellash from Rising Tide Capital … where’s Alfa … right over there. Did I pronounce your name right? Good. When your name’s Barack Obama, you’re sensitive to these things.”
Demmellash, who was born in Ethiopia, started Rising Tide in 2004 with Harvard University classmate Alex Forrester — now her husband — to help those who had ideas and abilities but needed the education and support to launch or grow their businesses.
The group runs the Community Business Academy, an intensive training session coupled with year-round coaching and mentorship to help individuals “really work on the hands-on management side of their business,” Demmellash said.
The organization supports underserved populations, including women, the formerly incarcerated, minorities, the unemployed and working poor, and immigrants and refugees.
Rising Tide Capital raises money from corporations and works with local governments for funding in order to provide classes and support its participants at affordable costs.
Participants pay a small materials and registration fee based on their income range: either $100 or $225 for the course that Demmellash says would cost thousands of dollars otherwise.
The organization has also built partnerships with micro-lenders, so when students are ready, the lenders provide financing.
Many of the students use the increased earnings from their new businesses to supplement their wages, allowing them to better provide for their families and transform the face of their communities, according to Demmellash.
“I am personally blown away that our work as a small grass-roots organization made it onto [the president’s] radar,” Demmellash wrote in an e-mail after the White House event. “But the validation and meaning his recognition gives to the efforts of the many struggling entrepreneurs in this country working to achieve self sufficiency and create jobs as well as those hundreds in this field working to support them is immeasurable.
“I am grateful for his support and for CNN Heroes for bringing our story of economic hope, perseverance and self-reliance that is central to the American dream to the ears of our president.”
LILONGWE (Nyasatimes) — Malawi Police at Lumbadzi in Lilongwe have arrested 169 Ethiopian refugees who were attempting to escape from Dzaleka refugee camp in Dowa.
This is the fourth time in three months police have arrested such a huge number of Ethiopians trying to flee the country using unlawful means. Most of these Ethiopians enter the country using unchartered routes in Northern districts of Malawi.
Lumbadzi Police Officer-in-Charge Effie Sato said the Ethiopians were arrested on Tuesday after getting a tip from the public who became suspicious with huge group of strange people.
“The refugees were taking a rest at a Chinese shop and some people got fishy with them and reported to our office,” said the Lumbadzi police boss.
The refugees are said to have carried maize and water and were reportedly heading for Zimbabwe.
“We are currently facilitating to take them back to the camp. We arrested them because they had no travel documents,” said the Officer-in-Charge.
According to Sato, one of the refugees, who was the only one who could communicate in English, said they decided to flee the camp because they are encountering myriad hitches at the camp like poor diet and sanitation.
The refugee also explained that five of their countrymen have died this year due to poor diet and healthy facilities and were buried right there.
Over 600 Ethiopian Refugees have been arrested this year alone for attempting to escape the camp for greener pastures in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Two weeks ago, group and village headmen surrounding Dzaleka Refugee camp asked government to urgently find means of instilling discipline among the Ethiopian asylum seekers.
The development came after the foreigners invaded Mengwe village in the area of T/A Chikukula where they stole maize while the owners were busy attending a funeral.
Group Village Headman Mengwe warned that if government does not do anything they would take law into their own hands because they were tired with the rotten behaviour of the Ethiopians.
The Ethiopians are said to be fighting indigenous Malawians, raping girls and old women and stealing from the surrounding villages, among others.
“We want government to take action urgently because we have been patient enough with these foreigners and the situation is now getting out of hand.
“People are living in fear in their own country because the Ethiopians are not only invading the villages during the day but also night, a situation that poses danger to their lives and property. If government is not assisting us we have the means to deal with the situation ourselves,” said the angry village, whose area is well known for gule wankulu cult.
There are currently over 8000 asylum seekers at Dzaleka camp from various countries like Somalia, Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Djibouti but the Ethiopians are said to be the most nuisance.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is indeed the darkest period in Ethiopia’s history where Ethiopians are humiliated inside their own country and around the world.
Dessie, Ethiopia (BBC) — Ethiopian Woyanne police have shot and killed two people who were helping to build a Christian church at a site which is also claimed by Muslims, officials say.
Violence broke out when police tried to stop the construction in Dessie, 250km (155 miles) north-east of Addis Ababa.
The police say they were responding to an attack on them by the Christians, but campaign groups say the police ambushed the workers.
The population of Dessie is about two-thirds Christian, one-third Muslim.
Information Minister Woyanne propaganda chief Bereket Simon told reporters that the Christians had “stormed the place” and tried to continue building the church “unlawfully”.
“Unfortunately three lives have been claimed. Two of them were killed by bullets, one of them fell off a cliff,” he said.
Several other people were also hurt in the violence.
Ethiopian Review will hold a worldwide teleconference on Sunday, July 12, 2009, at 3:00 PM, with:
1. Ato Melkie Mengiste, Secretary General of EPPF International Committee
2. Ato Sileshi Tilahun, Organizational Head of EPPF International Committee
3. Ato Demis Belete, Head of EPPF’s Press Office and representative of the EPPF Washington Metropolitan Chapter
The purpose of the conference is to provide a forum for EPPF supporters around the world to get first hand information from the organization’s officials on their effort to rally Ethiopians in support of the freedom fighters.
To participate in the conference, register now by sending email to:
The Obama administration is signaling its intention to keep Ethiopia as a key strategic partner, despite concerns about the country’s slide toward authoritarianism. The United States is seeking to expand development assistance to the Ethiopian government.
Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew is making his first trip to East Africa at a time of increasing regional instability.
The United States last week announced it had sent a $10-million shipment of weapons to help shore up the besieged government of Somalia, while accusing neighboring Eritrea of being behind violence aimed at undermining the Somali peace process.
Regional power Ethiopia sent troops in 2006 to prop up the fragile government in Mogadishu, but pulled them out earlier this year, and has expressed a reluctance to return without strong backing from the international community.
Secretary Lew’s stop in Addis Ababa included an hour-long talk with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Afterward, he told reporters the United States sees Ethiopia as an important strategic ally.
“The deep relationship between the United States and Ethiopia is based on a number of shared values, shared concerns,” said Lew. “The strategic relationship remains a very important one, and we value it. I think it is mutually valued by the government of Ethiopia and the government of the United States.”
“So I think we look to a future where we will be able to continue to work together not on just fighting common forces in the world that we think are a threat to each of us, but on a broader agenda where we can make a lasting difference in the quality of life in the life of the Ethiopian people, and by analogy people in many other countries to which we provide foreign assistance,” he added.
The United States last year gave more than $1 billion in aid to Ethiopia, most of it in emergency food assistance, and practically all the rest in programs to fight HIV/AIDS and Malaria. Lew says the Obama administration is looking to broaden the program to include development aid.
“The form assistance that has become the predominant form of assistance is provision of emergency food supplies,” he said. “We think there need to be increased resources available and an increased share of resources going into sustainable development.”
While maintaining the deep bilateral relationship, Secretary Lew says the Obama administration is worried about what is seen as a “closing of political space” in Ethiopia since the controversial 2005 elections. During his talk with Prime Minister Meles, Lew says he made a point of raising the issue of imprisoned Ethiopian opposition leader Birtukan Mideksa.
“I reinforced our concern that the matter be resolved quickly and finally,” he said.
Lew says he also expressed concern about two laws recently passed by Ethiopia’s parliament, one restricting activities of foreign-funded non-governmental organizations, the other limiting press freedom.
“The concerns we raised were the issues of openness that relate to NGOs and freedom of expression remain concerns to us,” he said. “We made that point clear again.”
Lew said his discussions with Prime Minister Meles also touched on a proposed new anti-terrorism law. The group Human Rights Watch issued a statement Tuesday saying the draft law could define criticism of the government as a “terrorist act” and be used to crack down on the opposition.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Former defense minister of Ethiopia’s tribal junta, Ato Siye Abrha, has reportedly disclosed his intention to join the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ), according to Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa.
According to the sources, Ato Siye is waiting to make a formal request to be a member of UDJ until the party finalizes its discussion with the other opposition parties that are in the process of forming a coalition.
Ato Siye was the guest of honor at a UDJ event at Addis Ababa’s Imperial Hotel on Saturday that was held to light candles for Birtukan Mideksa, the jailed leader of the party.
This week marks the 6th month since the Woyanne tribal junta threw Birtukan in jail.
Siye himself was jailed for 6 years after he had a fallout with his former comrade Meles Zenawi.
Ethiopian Review considers Siye an unrepentant Woyanne, but if he is able to peel away Tigrean support from the Meles mafia, his involvement in UDJ could be a plus for the opposition, as long as he doesn’t start to attack Ethiopian freedom fighters such as EPPF and our best ally, the Government of Eritrea.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A woman saluted as a CNN Hero was among a group of creative philanthropists honored Tuesday by President Obama.
Watch Obama call attention to Demmellash’s program »
Dessie, Ethiopia (