White House Honors Nunu Kidane, PAN Director

White House Highlights Nunu Kidane as a “Champion of Change” and Trailblazer in American Diaspora Communities

WASHINGTON, DC – On Monday, January 30th, the White House will honor Nunu Kidane as one of fourteen Champions of Change who are leaders in American Diaspora communities with roots in the Horn of Africa. These leaders are helping to build stronger neighborhoods in communities across the country, and are working to mobilize networks across borders to address global challenges.

Journalist Meron Estefanos received Isaak Prize of National Press Club's Western Circuit

Journalist Meron Estefanos received during Monday evening Isaak Prize of National Press Club's western circuit. With its radio broadcasts that reach all the way to Eritrea, she gives voice to the silenced and imprisoned journalist Dawit Isaak.

National Press Club's West Circuit has since 2007 annually awarded a special Isaak Award to individuals or organizations involved in Dawit Isaak's spirit of freedom of expression, press freedom and democratic rights and freedoms.

This year's winner is debater, human rights activist and journalist Meron Estefanos which is host of the radio station Voice of Delina Maselna. The programs are made ​​in Tigrinya, sent from Stockholm and reach Eritrea via shortwave.

 

The Nightingale sings of persecution in Eritrea

A powerful new book telling the story of gospel singer Helen Berhane , who was imprisoned in a shipping container in the East African state of Eritrea and brutally tortured for her faith, has been launched by Christian organisation Release International.

Helen was detained for two years by the military junta in Eritrea, during which she was severely beaten and kept in a metal shipping container in the heat of the desert.

She and many other Christians who had been rounded up by the authorities were locked in the airless, unsanitary steel container, and left to bake in the desert by day and freeze by night.

She tells her story in Song of the Nightingale, which is being published with the support of Release International.  In it she describes the atmosphere inside the container:

“A single candle flickers, its flame barely illuminating the darkness. They never burn for more than two hours after the container door is locked: there is not enough oxygen to keep the flame alive any longer. It will go out soon.

Life as a girl soldier in Eritrea

Ian Brimacombe reports on a woman who fought in the Eritrean struggle for independence from Ethiopia. She was just 13 when she became a soldier. She spent the next 16 years fighting in a brutal guerrilla war.

Meriem Omer began her life as a girl soldier in 1976.

"I joined the cause voluntarily. I felt like I had to do something," she told the BBC's World Update programme. "It was a hot political situation. I saw villages burning. I was surrounded by war. The regime was imprisoning many people. One of them was my father."

 

"In the battlefield, you could be as aggressive as a man and as merciless as a man"

Elizabeth/ Elsa Chyrum: Human Rights Activist (Eritrea)

On 20 June 2009, Elsa Chyrum, a human rights activist and advocate for Eritrean refugees all over the world, has received a Distinguished Medal Award of Excellence from the Eritrean Community For Human Rights and Refugee Protection in a symposium organized by Eritrean Global Solidarity in recognition of her human rights crusade, in general, and her tireless work with refugees, in particular.

Without exaggeration, Elsa Chyrum is a one-woman institution. First and foremost, she is the one person who has been handling the plight of Eritrean refugees from all over the world single-handedly, be it from stranded Eritreans in Khartoum in imminent risk of their lives, detained and abused refugees in a prison in Libya, traumatized refugees in fear of perishing in the Mediterranean high seas, terrified refugees soon to be deported from Egypt, or refugees who have reached their destination but afraid of rejection by their host country. Calm and reassuring at times of emergency, she is known to have turned hopeless seeming cases into happy endings at the 11^th hour.

America's Got Talent 4 Last Semifinal Round Recap

The final act was the Eriam Sisters, aged 16, 14 and 12. They are fun and entertaining although I found them singing a lot of unison, not harmony. As any serious singer knows it is actually easier by far for 3 voices to blend in harmony than for them to blend in unison. They should have used more harmony in their song, but this is a minor point.  Nick Cannon calls them "America's next pop sensation." Piers calls them "the next Destiny's Child." I call them going to the semifinals.    

America got Talent: EriAm Sisters

Haben Abraham and her sisters, Lianda and Salina, make up the trio The EriAm Sisters. With Haben only being 11 years old, Salina 13, and Lianda 15, these girls are well on their way!  Their songs No More, What I Wanna Be, and Never Let Go are really nice.  Haben, Salina, and Lianda all have very beautiful voices. If you have not heard their music or checked them out before, visit their Myspace Page HERE. Listen to their music and show them love!

GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Asmeret Ghebremichael of 'The Wiz'

Ghebremichael is in the cast of the Wiz that begins performances June 12 at City Center, this year’s installment of Encores! Summer Stars. When she was in high school, she landed her first professional job in a production of The Wiz at Pittsburgh’s Bynum Theater, directed by Billy Porter (like Ghebremichael, a native of Pittsburgh). She’d had her first-ever role in a musical when she played Dorothy in The Wiz in middle school.

After that sixth-grade Wiz, Ghebremichael announced to her family: “Okay, I want to move to New York, I want to go to NYU, and I want to be on Broadway.” Her mother and father, a nurse and electrical engineer who’d immigrated from the north African nation of Eritrea, were nonplussed: “When I said that I wanted to do this for a living, they had no idea what it entailed.” Yet their daughter managed to achieve all three goals within the decade: She made her Broadway debut in Footloose at age 18, just a few months into her freshman year at NYU.

Now, with another decade under her belt, Ghebremichael can also list these achievements: a featured role on Broadway, a scene in a major motion picture, ensemble parts in a string of hit musicals, and the female lead in an award-winning independent film.

A voice for the voiceless Helen Berhane

 Helen was in detention in Eritrea for refusing to denounce her evangelical Christian faith. She was arrested from Asmara and stayed for 32 months in prison. She suffered numerous beatings that resulted in severe nerve damage and has permanently impaired her mobility.

Helen was invited to the Kirchentag by a Germany organization called International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) which focuses on religious persecution. Helen was also a prize winner of this organization while she was still in prison in 2005 for her strong tolerance against torture. She got her prize last June in Frankfurt Germany.