When Nick Semine and Drucilla Roberts returned to the United States from the town of Adwa in Ethiopia, where they had gone to meet the two little girls they adopted in 2004, they came back with a new family and a new connection to their daughters’ birthplace.
Since then, they have become increasingly involved in efforts to bring aid to one of the poorest regions of Africa. Through Wide Horizons for Children, the Waltham-based adoption agency they used, they have participated in the funding of a medical clinic in Adwa, in northern Ethiopia.
Throughout their journey from hopeful parents to dedicated humanitarians, their accomplishments would not have been possible without the help and support of friends and their community, they say. One teenager, the daughter of a friend, has helped raise $500 through her school in Framingham.
Semine and Roberts, both doctors from Holliston, didn’t really expect to be parents. But when they finally considered having children, they immediately thought of adoption.
“If you want to be a parent, there are a lot of kids that need parents,” said Roberts. During a visit to Africa with her niece, Roberts was profoundly affected by the poverty she witnessed there, she said, and decided that if she and her husband were going to adopt, “we’re going to do it through Africa.”
Working through Wide Horizons, the only agency the couple could find at the time that offered adoptions from an African country, Semine and Roberts flew to Adwa, where they met sisters Simret and Simenesh, who are now 12 and 10.
After the girls had become part of the family and they all started settling into their Holliston home, Semine and Roberts decided it was time to expand on their involvement with Ethiopia. Although they had been sponsoring children there through a Wide Horizons program, they decided it wasn’t enough.
“I went and called the adoption agency and said my husband and I have the resources, we’d like to do something more,” said Roberts, 53, a pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “They were thinking about this clinic. They just needed start-up money and someone to push them to do it.”
The only hospital in the Adwa area is around 80 years old with no X-ray machine, laundry services, or even reliable electricity, Roberts said. Women often give birth in hallways, and doctors regularly see upwards of 300 patients a day.
A fully functioning medical clinic would make healthcare roughly 70 percent more accessible to around a million men, women, and children, organizers say.
Wide Horizons needed about $250,000 to get the project off the ground. Roberts and Semine initially contributed around $25,000, a figure that has quickly been supplemented through the generosity of friends.
Kenneth Kaplan, a family friend who teaches in New York, ended up raising more than $1,500 from his school community.
Pat Mangan, a close friend of Roberts, and her daughter Siobhan were motivated to help too.
“When she found out about this, she said, ‘I don’t have the money to help, but I have a lot of energy and a lot of ideas. Let me get the schools involved in this,’ ” said Roberts.
Siobhan immediately suggested fund-raising ideas for the clinic to her outreach group at Marian High School in Framingham. Sibohan said that although it was “awkward and kind of difficult at first” to propose yet another thing to a committee already inundated with projects, her classmates enthusiastically hopped on board.
“They knew that it was something really close to me . . . close to my heart,” she said. The Marian students raised around $500 for the clinic, a huge accomplishment for something that began with one student and spread to the rest of the Catholic school’s community.
Jack Langerman is another young student who was so inspired by the clinic project that he wanted to contribute his own skills to the cause. A junior at the Meeting School in Rindge, N.H., Langerman knows the family through his mother, a college friend of Roberts. After hearing about the project, he volunteered to create and maintain a website for them.
“It’s nice to be able to do something that I really love doing and have it be productive and for a good cause,” said Langerman, who estimated that he has put well over 50 hours into the website.
All the fund-raising efforts have made a difference. Construction started in July and the clinic is taking shape, said Semine, 52, a radiologist at Norwood Hospital. It is expected to be finished by the summer, according to Wide Horizons.
Semine visited Adwa in September and was excited to see progress. The clinic is being built by local contractors, with the aid of local residents, who have promised to finance 10 percent of the project with free labor and materials. The local health bureau has committed to providing physicians to staff the clinic, and Wide Horizons remains the chief financial backer.
Semine’s excitement is tempered with realism.
“We have had to adjust our expectations,” he said, as he described the struggle to establish a functioning health clinic while working with the basic, often inadequate, resources in the area. “That’s the challenge.”
Semine and Roberts are still seeking support for their efforts to obtain equipment and provide for the new clinic’s maintenance.
More information is available at the project’s website, www.adwaclinic.info.
World marathon record holder, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, will be in Lagos for the Glo-Lagos International Half Marathon but he will not be competing with other runners for the $50,000 top prize.
The Ethiopian legend, who set the world marathon record of 2.03.59 in Berlin last year, had been billed to be the major attraction for the February 21 event. But the change in the race’s original December 2008 date has apparently led to his withdrawal.
He is however committed to be involved in the race and he will now be in Lagos on the eve of the event to conduct a clinic.
A top Globacom official, Modele Sharafa-Yusuf, explained in Lagos on Thursday the role Gabresselaisse would be playing.
She said, “Haile will arrive in Lagos on Thursday, February 20 and conduct a clinic for Nigerian runners the following day at the AstroTurf, Ikoyi. We want Nigerian athletes to be competing for the top prizes in long-distance races and who better to train them than the world’s best.
“He won’t be running but he’ll still be here in Lagos to make a positive impact on the Glo-Lagos Half Marathon.”
The 35-year-old Ethiopian will be assisted during the clinic by another world champion, Holland‘s Lornah Kiplagat.
The 34-year-old Kenyan-born women‘s world half marathon champion will, however, also run in the race along with conducting the clinic.
Kiplagat, who gained Dutch citizenship in 2003 after marrying Pieter Langerhorst, will be the headline act of the race surrounded by a strong field.
Kenya’s Luke Kibet, the reigning world marathon champion and the winner of the Singapore Marathon in December; Ethiopia’s Tsegay Kebede, who won the Beijing 2008 marathon bronze; and South African Hendrick Ramaala, a three-time winner of the Great North Run, are also expected in Lagos.
At the 51st Grammy music award last Sunday, the best of the industry were recognized for their achievements. The highlight of the televised event featured, nine months pregnant rapper M.I.A, who took center stage to perform her hit song “swagga like us”.
This song brought together what entertainer Queen Latifa called “a rap pack” — featuring Kanye West, T.I., Jay-Z, and Lil Wayne.
But this night was not only about the big shot artists. It also gave recognition to young and emerging talents.She did not win. But for African artist Wayna Wondossen, just being nominated for a Grammy was a big achievement. She was in South Africa when she found out that her song “Lovin’ U” had been nominated.
“I knew I wouldn’t be able to see the actual announcements because we were in a remote area of Cape Town [South Africa] and we probably wouldn’t get the broadcast there. So early in the morning the next day, I got up early and ran downstairs to the hotel business center. I went straight to the Grammy pages to search for my name and it popped-up and I just screamed,” she said.
The winner of the category in the category Best Urban/Alternative Performance was “be ok” by Chrisette Michele, featuring will.i.am. But for Wayna, it has been a good year anyway, and the nomination alone was an honor.
Since giving up her work as a presidential speechwriter in the Clinton administration, she had been struggling to make it in the highly competitive music industry with soul music, which doesn’t sell very well these days.
So what does Wayna have over Beyonce, Shakira, Madonna and Janet Jackson? Seven weeks straight on the music industry’s top charts. Billboard magazine publishes the sales numbers and radio airplay rankings of news albums and singles. Wayna’s single release “Moonlight Rendezvous” hit the “Hot 100 Soul Singles,” topping all four of the other pop divas.
“This was just so surreal. It just made me feel like, wow, I am really doing this. It helped me be a little bit more confident.”
Wayna’s success in billboard magazine and her nomination for the Grammys was an ice breaker but has not yet led to sustained commercial success. Prospects? Yes! Satisfaction? You bet! Money? Not yet. But she is happy about it. I caught up with her before she hit the stage to perform at a club on U Street, the old center of African-American culture in Washington, DC.
“I feel like I probably have done as well financially as I did when I had a regular job. But that, of course, is not my goal. We are taking extra steps to make the product more accessible. We put it on I-Tunes, My Space, and YouTube. There are more opportunities for independent artists to build their brand with the internet. So, we are trying to take advantage of that and move on.”
Writing political speeches did not satisfy Wayna. It appealed to her intellect, but did not reflect her dreams. She longed to write something uplifting — something people would want to hear over and over again.
The 34-year-old, who has been married for six years, has two CD albums, “Moments of Clarity” and “Higher Grounds.” She says they’re her babies, at least for now.
Either at back stage rehearsals or on her CD performances, having fun with her music is the greatest gift for her.
Back in the U Street club, Wayna’s wearing a body-skimming skirt and sparkly top. She took center stage with her backup singers. Illuminated by the stage lights, she came close to the mic, cupping it in her hands. A sweet long hum wooed the audience, and Wayna introduced a song dedicated to her love of music and life.
“Loving you
is easy Coz you are beautiful.
Making love with you,
is all I want to do…
And everything that I do,
is out of loving you.”
Wayna Wondossen knows the road ahead is tough. But she believes that the ride is worthwhile.
Although coffee gets a bad rap, it’s actually a medicinal food. In fact, this stimulating bean isn’t nearly so bad as we’ve all been taught. Although I’m skeptical about grande latte supplementation in the long run (it’s a drug, after all), I found myself surprised by much of the science on coffee. Poor Ponce de Leon; all this time he should have been searching for the espresso machine.
Step aside, acai. Here are some surprising health benefits of coffee.
Apparently, coffee and alcohol really do go together. Believe it or not, alcohol drinkers who also drink coffee regularly have a lower chance of developing cirrhosis of the liver. That’s not to say it’s a healthy lifestyle – obviously, lowering your alcohol consumption is better. But…science says…
Caffeine reduces risk of skin cancer. Sorry, venti quaffers, this prevention method is topical. Lotions containing caffeine (both from coffee and green tea) have been shown to prevent the occurrence of cancerous tumors on the skin – in murine trials, anyway.
Have a smile with your morning brew! If you’re a caffephile, you don’t need this Johns Hopkins study to tell you that a cup or two a day increases your sense of well-being and happiness. You can thank dopamine for that, which also contributes to coffee’s addictive nature. But be aware, the study also noted that more than 2 cups daily increases the risk of anxiety and panic attacks. Some people respond more readily than others – if you find yourself feeling jittery or nervous, ease up on the joe.
Caffeine may reduce chance of Parkinson’s Disease. A 30-year study has shown that non-coffee drinkers have a higher chance of developing Parkinson’s Disease than their coffee-drinking counterparts.
Most Americans get their antioxidants from coffee. That doesn’t mean it’s the best source of antioxidants, just that it’s the most consumed. But, it’s true, coffee is very high in antioxidants. As for me, I’ll stick to fruit.
Black gold. After petroleum, coffee is the second most valuable economic product in the world. Imagine the financial potential of running our cars on coffee grounds.
Coffee may cut colon cancer in women. A 12-year study on Japanese women found that drinking 3 or more cups of coffee per day may actually halve the risk of developing colon cancer. They found no beneficial effect from green tea on the colon – in this case, it was strictly a coffee thing.
Coffee and diabetes, that’s a tricky one. Even though a Finnish study shows that drinking large amounts of coffee can reduce the risk of developing Type-2 Diabetes, coffee drinkers who already have diabetes have a harder time controlling their blood sugar levels.
Coffee reduces muscle pain. After a hard workout, a cup or two of coffee has been shown to reduce muscle soreness (in women, anyway) more effectively than naproxen, aspirin and ibuprofen. (But don’t replace your water thermos with coffee.)
Coffee will detox your liver in surprising ways. This remedy is not one for drinking: we’re talking about the coffee enema. Some people swear by it – using a tube to introduce coffee into the rectum and colon in order to stimulate the liver to remove toxins. Definitely not for the squeamish.
Coffee may reduce chance of death from heart disease. Studies show that drinking 4-5 cups of coffee a day can make you less likely to die from heart disease. The researchers think it may have something to do with coffee’s anti-inflammatory effects.
The devil is in the grounds. When coffee, which originated in Ethiopia and became popular in the Arab world, was first introduced to Western culture, Christian priests denounced it as the devil’s drink, given to the Muslims as a substitute for the wine (Christ’s blood) they weren’t allowed to consume. The belief at the time was that any coffee-drinking Christian risked burning in hell forever. Hooray, progress!
Coffee may help with short term memory. It’s probably because of caffeine’s stimulant effects, but an Austrian study showed that volunteers given caffeinated coffee had better reaction times and short-term memory function than those who were given the cup of decaf.
For women, caffeine may prevent long term memory loss. Because caffeine is a psychostimulant, older women who drink 3 or more cups of coffee or tea a day have less memory loss and cognitive decline than their counterparts who drink less or none. Unfortunately, caffeine consumption doesn’t seem to have any preventative effect against dementia.
Caffeine won’t cause hypertension. Some of the studies can be contradictory and confusing. What we do know is that for non-habitual coffee drinkers, those first few cups will cause a temporary rise in blood pressure, but for regular drinkers, a tolerance develops and won’t cause any long term, permanent increase.
The injustice of cheap coffee. No, it’s not just an injustice to your connoisseur taste buds; conventional coffee farming exploits workers and destroys communities in third world countries. On average, 5% of the profits actually make it back to the farmers, who are hungry, underpaid and treated badly. Why do they work on coffee plantations at all? Because in many cases, the plantations own the most fertile land (which was most often acquired unscrupulously) and the local people won’t survive from subsistence farming alone. How can you avoid supporting the cycle of poverty, corruption and injustice? Only buy Fair Trade certified coffee.
Pesticides in your brew. Because almost all coffee is grown in third world countries with less stringent laws than Europe or the United States, your non-organic cuppa is probably laden with chemicals. That’s not just bad for you, it’s bad for the farmers and the tropical ecosystems in which the coffee is grown. Go organic, will ya?
Pick your poison – literally. Caffeine is an alkaloid, which is a type of poisonous, bitter substance found in plants. Other alkaloids include strychnine, nicotine, morphine, mescaline, and emetine (the deadly ingredient in hemlock). Fortunately, in small quantities the bean is harmless, but it’s worth thinking about if you choose to use other drugs (both pharmaceutical and recreational).
The FDA has approved caffeine for babies. This doesn’t mean you can wake up your sleepy infant with a bottle of latte. Caffeine injections have been used medicinally since 1999 in the United States to stimulate breathing in infants who are experiencing apnea. It’s still recommended that pregnant and breastfeeding women keep their caffeine intake to a minimum, but a modest amount is safe.
Coffee can fight cavities. Just avoid all the sugar and milk! Actually, roasted coffee has some antibacterial properties, particularly against Streptococcus mutans, one of the major causes of cavities. By the way, these properties have nothing to do with caffeine, so decaf drinkers will get the same protection.
Despite the positive health studies, it’s best not to intentionally pick up the caffeine habit if you’re not already a regular coffee drinker. Even though some of the studies suggest drinking 3 or more daily cups to get the benefits, everyone is different. If it makes you jittery and sick to your stomach, stick to a milder pick-me-up like green tea or yerba mate. But if that morning cup makes you feel awake, alive and eager to greet the day, you might as well indulge (in moderation) in the world’s most well-loved drink.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – Icy roads were a contributor to the death of a cab driver when he was on his way to work Wednesday in Burien, a suburb of Seattle.
Friends told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that Getenet Endeshaw, 28, was driving to work when he lost control of his car on the icy roads.
The Washington State Patrol said his car spun-out on state Route 509 at 128th at about 4:15 a.m. and wound-up facing the wrong direction.
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA – Police have arrested two men whom they say played a role in the death of a 25-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia whose body was found Monday morning in a South San Jose neighborhood.
San Jose police arrested Samuel Rose, 19, and Ronald Correa, 20, both of San Jose, on Monday, according to Officer Jermaine Thomas, a department spokesman.
Rose is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon on charges of accessory to murder and theft or unauthorized use of a vehicle, according to Amy Cornell, a spokeswoman with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.
Correa, who was arrested on suspicion of murder, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday, Cornell said.
Monday morning, the body of Fisaha Isaac Gebremichael, 25, of San Jose, was discovered lying on the curb at about 5:30 a.m. by a resident who lives in the neighborhood of the 600 block of Braxton Drive, located south of Hellyer Avenue.
Gebremichael died of a gunshot wound, according to police, who have not released any other details about the slaying.
“No motive has been established yet and the investigation is ongoing,” Thomas said.
The slaying, the city’s fourth killing this year, does not appear to be gang-related, according to police.
By Henok Semaegzer Fente | VOA
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – Icy roads were a contributor to the death of a cab driver when he was on his way to work Wednesday in Burien, a suburb of Seattle.