Mesgana Dancers are Coming to D.C.

2008 COEEF Mesgana Dance Tour Schedule:


September 7, Ethiopian New Yearʼs Festival @ Lake Merritt Park, Oakland, CA
September 13 @ Rose Wagner Theatre, Salt Lake City, UT
September 20 @ GW Lisner Auditorium, Washington, DC
September 27 @ South Orange Performing Arts Center, South Orange, NJ

For more information visit www.coeef.org

How You Can Help Ethiopia Reads

How You Can Help!
Ethiopia Reads relies on the support of people from around the world who share our dream of connecting children with books. From school groups in the Netherlands to churches in North Dakota, generous supporters from every walk of life keep our programs running.

Your help is extremely important to the children we serve. And whether you love books, Ethiopia, kids or just want to do something good, there are lots of ways to help.

Make a Donation
Ethiopia Reads welcomes your tax-deductible donation in any amount. All donations are used to support and expand our programs in Ethiopia. Your dollar stretches far in Ethiopia (where the average annual income is estimated to be $125).

Consider:

$1 Funds the publication of one book
$4 Buys an Amharic-English Dictionary for Children
$40 Provides an Ethiopian librarian with a training manual
$83 Keeps Shola Children’s Library open for one day
$220 Purchases 200 Amharic-language story books
$500 Provides an Ethiopian library worker with a scholarship for library skills training
$1,000 Funds food, care and shelter for the Donkey Mobile Library
$2,000 Provides a year's salary for a library manager
$2,500 Buys high-quality furniture and other materials for a library
$5,000 Sponsors the annual Ethiopian Children's Book Week Celebration
$9,000 Ships a container of 40,000 books to libraries in Ethiopia
The Golden Kuraz Club: $10,000 + Above. Your major gift can help with everything from funding multiple book shipments to planting a rural library program. Please call us to discuss the many ways in which you can make a significant difference.

Friends of Ethiopia Reads - Update

Dear Friends of Ethiopia Reads – Greater Washington DC:

I apologize for the tardiness of my e-mail update. I have meant to e-mail and let everyone know about our recent events and successes! (From the March 1st Whirlwind Weekend!)

Let me start by expressing thanks to:

Matt Andrea & Kenfe and Mimi at Sidamo Coffee Shop in Washington D.C. for hosting Ethiopia Reads and Jane Kurtz. Always a pleasure!

Bete Yilma for coordinating Jane’s appearance at Church and at the Highland Café in Silver Spring! Huge Success!

Veronika Jenke for coordinating the event at Busboys and Poets in Shirlington. Great Venue!

Thank you Jim Larsen for being instrumental in spreading the word.

Always HUGE thanks to Dereje Desta & Zethiopia for spreading our news!

I know that there were many more helping hands for the weekend and I thank everyone who helped with selling books, greeting, carrying boxes, donating, and all of the other ways you touched Ethiopia Reads with your generosity of spirit.

All of the venues were so accommodating – we had a great time, meeting new people and seeing old friends. Each event was financially successful with amazing support put toward our new “Basket of Books” program. We received $2500 in support through book sales and donations.

Additionally, that same weekend Ethiopia Reads received $700 of donations toward a publishing project! The DC friends of Ethiopia Reads will continue to raise money for this particular project.

Another success that stemmed from that weekend was the placement of two donation boxes. One is at Sidamo Café and the other at Highland. I haven’t had feedback from Highland, but the box at Sidamo has been wildly successful with Kenfe and Mimi bringing in $30-$50 worth of donations a week and selling out of Ethiopia Reads books regularly. It is GREAT.

I have hope for the DC chapter of Ethiopia Reads to get to the point where we have 10 donation boxes placed by the end of the summer. Let me know if you have ideas for venues.

Ethiopia Reads is NOT packing books at the World Bank Book Project this Spring, but we will now be packing books in the winter – so please stay tuned for more information regarding the Book Project.

We are continuing to collect books to ship to Addis and for people to carry over with them. (Thank you Mekdie, for your contribution of books and school supplies at the Highland Café event in Silver Spring!) If you or someone you know is traveling to Ethiopia – I am happy to supply you with books to take! This is obviously the most economical way for us (DC) to get books to Ethiopia – FREE!

I have started a blog for the Friends of Ethiopia Reads – DC Chapter – the blog address is:

http://ethiopiareads.blogspot.com/

I am hopeful that we can use this space to stay in touch more efficiently.

Now that Spring Break has passed for all of us we will have a meeting to discuss plans & goals for the next few months. We will meet on Monday, April 21 at 6:45 p.m. at the Noodles & Company at Pentagon Row – we have met there before and it is easy (Metro Accessible) and there is space! Please let me know if you can make the meeting – the more the merrier.

Again, thank you to everyone in the area - your commitment to help the children of Ethiopia is inspiring to me. I appreciate all that you do.



Best,

Catie Dupont

catie@ethiopiareads.org

Ethiopia Reads launches "Basket of Books" Program

Basket of Books Program

As a grass-roots organization we have been overwhelmed with the numbers of people who have reached out to us asking “How can I help?”

The Basket of Books program is an initiative launched by Ethiopia Reads that allows those of us who aren’t able to plant an entire library or publish a book share the joy of reading and make a lasting impact.

You can touch the lives of children who rarely or never get to hold books.

What is the Basket of Books Program?
A simple two-step program! 1) You donate $200 to sponsor a Basket of Books. Each book will have a nameplate placed on the inside cover recognizing the basket’s sponsor: your organization, family, or perhaps a reader or supporter of the world’s children that you want to honor with a gift. 2) Ethiopia Reads will place the basket with a worthy organization that serves children in Ethiopia. (If you like, we will work with you on placing a basket with an organization you might already have a relationship with.)

Each basket of books will contain an assortment of books like those shown in the pictures above – to include Early Readers, picture books, middle grade novels and local language books.

For more information regarding the Basket of Books program, please contact Catie Dupont.
Catie@EthiopiaReads.org
For more information about Ethiopia Reads – please visit http://www.ethiopiareads.org/.

Ongoing Campaign for Ethiopia Reads - Take One Book! Will You?

Take One Book Literacy Campaign for Ethiopia

One book can change a life. That is what Ethiopia Reads founder Yohannes Gebregiorgis discovered at 19 years of age when he held his first book. Now you have the opportunity to change a life through Ethiopia Reads’ “TAKE ONE BOOK” campaign. In recognition of the Millenium celebration in Ethiopia this year we are committed to donating at least 2,000 books to children in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Reads, founded in 2003, works to improve literacy and create a culture of reading in Ethiopia. We do this by planting libraries and publishing books in local languages as well as offering continuing education programs to help educators in Ethiopia nurture a love of reading.

Since Ethiopia Reads opened Ethiopia’s first free children’s library in 2003, thousands of children have experienced the joy of reading. The library received 60,000 visits to the library in 2006. Ethiopia Reads sees first hand the difference that one library, ONE BOOK, and one story can make in the life of a child.

If you or someone you know is traveling to Ethiopia, Ethiopia Reads challenges you to TAKE ONE BOOK with you, because we believe that education is hope and books can change lives. Books can be dropped off at the Shola Children’s Library in Addis Ababa. Shola is located in Beklo-Bet, behind the Dashen Bank off of Debre Zeit road.

If you are not traveling, but want to make a difference in Ethiopia, we are collecting books in Washington, DC and Kansas to send over with other travellers.

For more information on the TAKE ONE BOOK campaign, please contact Catie Dupont at catie@ethiopiareads.org or Katie Douglas at katie@ethiopiareads.org.

WILL YOU TAKE ONE BOOK?


Suggested book list:

1. Any type of non-fiction books are appreciated.

2. Suggested fiction titles:

• Baby Baboon
• Crafty Chameleon
• Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, by Verna Aardema
• Bringing the Rain to Kaputi Plain
• Anansi Does the Impossible
• Kaldi and the Dancing Goats, the story of Ethiopian Coffee
• Anansi and the Talking Melon
• Anansi the Spider
• Babu’s Song
• Fatuma’s New Cloth
• My Rows and Piles of Coins
• Once Upon a Time
• What’s Cooking Jamela
• The Day Gogo Went to Vote
• Silly Mammo
• Aida
• Kings and Queens of West Africa
• Sundiata: The Lion King
• Seven Spools of Thread
• Journey to Jo’Burg
• Saba: Under the Hyena’s Foot
• Storytellers’ Beads
• Moonlight Bride
• The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Child
• The Other Side of Truth
• Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope
• Weep not Child
• Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol
• Purple Hibiscus
• So Long a Letter
• Nervous Conditions
• No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency
• The Magic Gourd
• Bintou’s Braids
• My Great Grandmother’s Gourd
• Tutankhamen’s Gift
• No Turning Back
• Hatshepsut: His Majesty Herself
• Year of No Rain
• Many Stones
• The Ugly Goddess
• Beduin’s Gazelle
• Mother to Mother
• Midaq Alley
• Dreams of Trespass

*go to www.janekurtz.com for more children’s books related to life in Africa

Jane Kurtz to Speak at Highland Origin Cafe in Silver Spring, Maryland!

Meet children’s author Jane Kurtz!
Support Ethiopia Reads!

Come hear Jane tell her story of growing up in Ethiopia, how it influenced her writing and the development of the NGO Ethiopia Reads. Jane’s books -- Only A Pigeon, the Lion’s Tail (Amharic/English version) and Saba will be available for purchase. Dual language Amharic/English books -- The Beekeeper of Lalibela, Fafi’s Sheep and Silly Mammo will also be available.

Sunday, March 2, 2008 ~~ 1:30 – 4:00 pm
Highland Origin Cafe
8200 Fenton Street
Silver Spring, Maryland
For additional information, please contact Catie@EthiopiaReads.org

The kitchen at Highland Origin Café will be open for your convenience.

Jane Kurtz to speak on behalf of Ethiopia Reads at Sidamo Cafe in Washington, DC

Meet children’s author Jane Kurtz
and support Ethiopia Reads

Come hear Jane tell her story of growing up in Ethiopia, how it influenced her writing and the development of the NGO Ethiopia Reads. Jane’s books -- Only A Pigeon, the Lion’s Tail (Amharic/English version) and Saba will be available for purchase. Dual language Amharic/English books -- The Beekeeper of Lalibela, Fafi’s Sheep and Silly Mammo will also be available.

Saturday, March 1, 2008 ~~ 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Sidamo Coffee and Tea
417 H Street NE
Washington, DC 20002

The kitchen at Sidamo will be open for your convenience.