The Silver Spring Meeting

November 29th, The Fundraising Night:
It is the first of its kind in the East Coast and it happened November 29 and 30, 2003 in Silver Spring, Maryland. In the United States, these dates are traditionally known as the Thanksgiving weekend, indeed, for the great milestone reached by the children of Azezo, it is one more reason to be thankful this year.

The Thanksgiving weekend meeting was planned and organized by the members of ADMA - Azezo Dimaza Mehaber in the Washington DC area. ADMA is a newly founded organization to help the young people of Azezo. It has been around for about two years now. The organization has its roots in Ethiopia and its main goal is to build an income generating youth center in Azezo.

November 29th was the date set by members of ADMA to raise funds for the construction of the Youth Center. Azezo's children who live in the near by states: Virginia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were all invited. In addition, invitation letters were sent to places like Boston, Toronto, Seattle, Dallas, and California. Although majority of the attendees were from DC, Maryland and Virginia areas, others have come from far places like New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and as far as Canada.

According to the organizers, which all of us who attended the event agree, the fund raising night was a success. During the night, ADMA was able to raise over $17,300.00 dollars. In addition the event gave to all of us a chance to reunite with friends whom we haven't seen for years. Some of us were also able to meet people who grew up in Azezo for the first time.

The night began with a warm welcome from members of ADMA as we walked in to the hall followed by our traditional kissing, hugging and with lots of handshaking from people whom we have not seen for many years. The hall was decorated with colorful balloons written on them Azezo Youth Center, above it was the slogan: Azezo is proud of its sons and daughters. During the course, drinks were served to relax people and make them comfortable. Soon after that, dinner was served with all kind of Ethiopian traditional home cooked food including kurt and awazie - red raw meat with red-hot pepper sauce.

Ato Shimelis Tadesse welcomed all the attendees as he gave the opening speech. Ato Shimelis thanked God for the night: "I thank God for bringing us all together and giving us this opportunity to meet. We all left Azezo at different times and for different reasons, but here we are, all of us in this room gathering to make a difference in the lives of the young people of Azezo. We are all children of Azezo; Azezo does not have stepchildren. We must all contribute for this noble purpose and thank you all for being part of this event."

Ato Malede Zewdu thanked all that were in the room for coming together to help the people of Azezo. After elaborate explanation of the history behind ADMA, how it began and where it is at the moment, Ato Malede emphasized the uniqueness and importance of the Azezo Youth Center project ADMA is planning to build. He said: "One thing that make this project different from other projects is that the Azezo Youth Center Project is an income generating project which later be able to support other projects." Continuing with his speech, he explained how the hall in the youth center could be used: "renting it for many occasions like weddings and other events will bring income. The youth center can be used to show movies, we can also sell food items like tea and bread. We can give small capitals to few individuals who will use the money to bake bread and sell in the center. We can buy 'Carambulla', bikes and other games which can be rented and generate income. The income gained from this center can be used to help other projects and open employment opportunity for some individuals." Before returning to his seat, Ato Malede invited Ato Demis Sisay to the podium to begin the fund raising program.

Ato Demis also thanked all that were in the room and talked about why he believes in this particular project and why he is part of it. He said: "We can do other smaller projects which can be accomplished easily, but we will always give to these projects and there is no end to it. The youth center project, once it is completed, will generate income which later can be used to support other smaller projects." After he shared his points, Ato Demis asked all attendees to give what they can for this project. He said: "I am ready to accept pledges". Soon after that individuals raised their hands to pledge. Ato Yousif Abubaker, the secretary nominated for the night, took names of individuals who pledged along with the duration of time the contributors promised to finish their payments.

Ato Yousif read the names of individuals and couples who made contributions until that time. Then, Ato Muluken continued with the program and before it was over, he raise over $7,300 bringing the total to $17,300* for the night from about thirty people that participated in the event. At the end, individuals who pledged were invited to come to the front to shake hands with Ato Muluken and pictures were taken as the hand-shaking celebration was underway.

As a part of the Thanksgiving weekend fundraising project, plans were made to discus the recent urgent request for help from Aste Fasil Elementary and Junior High School. Although some people had already left before they heard the announcement for the time and place where we were going to meet the next day- Sunday, November 30th- attempts were made to reach as many people as we could to inform and invite them to come.

November 30th, The Discussion for Unity:
The time for the meeting was set at 10:00 AM and the place was at Ato Abebe Zewdu's house in Silver Spring, Maryland. Eleven people in all attended the meeting. Ato Abebe graciously served all of us with fresh, hot coffee. Ato Yousif Abubaker was elected to be the chairman for the meeting; and it was suggested from the house that everyone attending the meeting would say a word or two about what they would like to see discussed in the meeting. After everyone has said on what the agenda for the day should be, it became clear to all of us that what we wanted to discus was Unity.

Unity:
Unity is important in the kind of projects we are involved in. The construction of the Azezo Youth Center and the renovation of the Azezo Aste Fasil Elementary and Junior High School require a large amount of money. Compared to our numbers, native Azezo's children live in diaspora, these projects are too big to accomplish in a short period of time. Rather, the best approach would be to come together and work one project at a time.

In order to implement what is stated above practically, the group has agreed to establish one organization, which would be responsible for carrying out all projects. Since the Azezo Dimaza Mehaber (ADMA) has done a great work so far, it was agreed in the meeting to increase the committee membership and make ADMA the umbrella organization to bring all native children (former Aste Fasil Students) under its wings. Question was raised to change the name in order to attract more people, but the group has decided to leave it the way it is for now and if there is a need, it will be discussed in the future.

The following list includes all committee members: present committee members of ADMA are Malede Zewdu, Abebe Zewdu and Muluken Abraha. The newly elected members of the committee are Yousif Abubaker, Abraham Azene, Senait Tefera, Shimelis Tadesse and Dannie Tefera. In all, the reformed organization has eight committee members; all of them are within few hours of driving from DC area.