Wednesday, October 3, 2012 (E-SMART) On Sunday September 30th close to a 1,000 Eritreans from the Washington D.C. metro area attended a Hizbawi Mekete Town Hall meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The event which consisted of programs designed to inform and educate the Eritrean community was a resounding success.
The program opened with a welcome message and summary of report from Hizbawi Mekete Chair Mr. Mekonnen G-mariam. The main event commenced with a live video conference from New York City by Mr. Yemane Gebreab, Senior Advisor to the President of the State of Eritrea and Head of Political Affairs of the PFDJ. Mr. Yemane has been in New York City with the Eritrean Delegation for the annual United Nations General Assembly. He updated the audience on the current socio-political situation and on-going development programs inside Eritrea. He went on to take questions where he answered them to the satisfaction of the public.
Following Yemane’s seminar, Saron Araia and Tirhas Kibrezghi presented their experience and observation on the 5th Eri-Youth Festival in Sawa.
Following this, a group of young bright Eritreans introduced a new project: EriReaders. The EriReader Project, proposes a cutting edge, cost-effective, environmentally friendly and sustainable method to enhance education in Eritrea’s schools. Its aim is to make e-readers, which can store thousands of text books, audio, video and other educational materials in a portable handheld tablets, available to students in Eritrea. The audience was very receptive and supportive of the idea as the traditional method of shipping of books, can be expensive and environmentally unfriendly. For more information on this noble project you can contact these dedicated Eritrean youth at: erireaderteam@gmail.com.
The final part of the meeting was dedicated to investment & business opportunities inside Eritrea and on participating in Eritrea’s economic revival. Dr. Berhe Habtegiorgis presented exciting data and practical information that can help people invest in their country of origin. The seminar concluded successfully. As was last year the month of September once again brought joy and steadfastness to the Eritrean community in DC Metro area with more seminars taking place in New York and other parts of the country via video conferencing.
Zel’alemawi z’khri nsema’etatna!
Awet n’Hafash!!
E-SMART TEAM