Children of Ethiopia Education Fund

Girls From Ethiopia Shake Up Oakland With National Dances

Written by www.sfgate.com Rachel Howard, Special to The Chronicle Tuesday, September 5, 2006

The Mesgana Dancers, brought by a nonprofit group, perform at Lake Merritt. Chronicle photo by Lea Suzuki It didn't seem like the scene could get any sunnier Sunday, as thousands of Ethiopians and admirers of Ethiopian culture gathered on the north shore of Oakland's Lake Merritt -- the women in traditional flowing white gowns, the men in suits, the children clambering on trees, and everyone eating injera and laughing. But then 7-year-old Sofia Kedir took center stage, stamping and shaking her tiny shoulders as though her 3-foot frame had been possessed by rhythm. The crowd went crazy for her.

She hadn't come from either the Oakland or San Jose Ethiopian community centers -- the organizers of this Ethiopian New Year's celebration -- but all the way from Ethiopia.

Olympic athlete visits students

Written by Deseret News By Tammy Walquist

Top female runner in the world offers advice

Meseret Defar hugs the Mesgana Dancers after their performance at Murray High School. Defar spoke about how she became an Olympic champion. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Morning News) MURRAY — The Murray High School cross country team received a visit from a special guest Sept. 19 — an Olympic gold medalist, currently ranked as the top female runner in the world.

Ethiopian native Meseret Defar, 23, offered Murray students advice on training and shared some of her history about how she became an Olympic champion.

Defar won an Olympic gold medal for the women's 5,000 meters in the 2004 Olympics in Athens. She was awarded a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships and more recently won the 2006 World Indoor Championships in the 3,000 meters. In June she broke the outdoor world's record in the 5K at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York.

She was in Utah for a few days in connection with the Mesgana Dancers Tour 2006 and to run in the Top of Utah 5K in Logan on Sept. 23. The Mesgana Dancers are a group of Ethiopian girls, ages 7-12, who are students in the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund, based in Murray.

Ethiopian dancers share their culture with valley school kids

Written by The Herald Journal By Emilie H. Wheeler

Sept 23, 2006, NIBLEY — A group o heralddancers f Ethiopian girls educated by the pocketbooks of several Utahns have ended a month-long dancing tour in the U.S. that included performances at three schools in Cache Valley.

Friday marked the last show the 10 girls did at a school when they performed three dances at Nibley Elementary — something Principal Bill Lindauer said was a wonderful experience for his students to have.

“Whenever children can have an experience with another cultures — another international culture — the better it is for that child,” he said.

COEEF Director Norm Perdue said taking the girls on tour is a way of creating awareness and spreading their culture throughout the U.S. It’s also helpful for American children to learn about the rest of the world, he said.

“For us, it brings awareness,” he said. “The kids here can see that they’re pretty lucky” after hearing about living conditions in Ethiopia.

Children dance for Ethiopian education

Written by www.dailybulletin.com Imani Tate, STAFF WRITER Created: 08/31/2006

Dance is their medium, but the 10 young African girls performing as the Mesgana Dancers of Ethiopia in two Inland Valley programs are really promoting education and international peace.

The girls, ages 7 to 12, will perform traditional dances from five regions of Ethiopia at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the David Dreier Hall of the Central Park Facilty, 11200 Baseline Road in Rancho Cucamonga. They are trained master dancer Mesgane Abyot of the Ethiopian National Dance Theater. All the girls are members of the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund, the nonprofit organization also licensed as a legal international nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia. Proceeds of the Rancho Cucamonga performance will benefit COEEF which sponsors the tuition, books, supplies and uniforms for the Ethiopian girls to attend school in their homeland.

The tax-deductible donation to the Wednesday concert is $10 for adults, $5 for children age 12 and younger and $25 per family.

The Mesgana Dancers will also perform at Fairplex in Pomona on Sept. 8, the opening day of the 84th anniversary of the Los Angeles County Fair. The girls will dance from 2:40 to 3:10 p.m. on the community stage in building 4.

The Pomona performance is included in the general admission ticket to the fair.

COEEF

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