Posts filed under ‘Education’
Ethiopian girls fight child marriages
By Will Ross BBC News,
“I wanted to get an education but my
parents were determined to marry me off,” says Himanot Yehewala, an Ethiopian
girl who was married five years ago at the age of 13.
“I tried to run away but my mother said she would kill herself if I did not
marry him.”
“I was not mature physically or emotionally so it was not easy for me to go
and sleep with my husband.”
She had never met her bridegroom, 18-year-old Gedefaw Mengistu, before their
wedding day.
“Start Quote
In one case the husband was eight and the supposed wife was
seven. I mean you want to say it’s abominable”
End Quote Desmond Tutu
Archbishop emeritus
“I knew she was too young. I was in grade five but my
father died and I was forced to stop school, get married and keep the family
going,” Mr Gedefaw told the BBC.
The couple live in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region – an impoverished rural farming
area where half of all girls are married before they turn 15.
“It’s quite shattering to have met people who were married off,” Archbishop
Desmond Tutu told the BBC on a visit to the area.
“In one case the husband was eight and the supposed wife was seven. I mean
you want to say it’s abominable,” he said.
The South African Nobel Peace Prize winner may have recently announced his
retirement from public life but he is out fighting injustice again as one of the
Elders – the group of eminent global leaders brought together by South Africa’s
former President Nelson Mandela.
“I wasn’t aware of the extent of the problem – and it is just fantastic that
things are taking a turn for the better and incredibly so,” he said.
The archbishop was referring to the impact of government-led programmes in
several dozen villages in the region which focus on delaying marriage.
Fear of abduction
“Start Quote
When I finish my high school I will join university; I’ll
complete my BA degree and get a job and help my family. Then if my partner has a
degree too then I will marry him”
End
Quote Abay Asnakew, 12
In this impoverished area where people live off the
land, the lure of a bride price causes many families to push for early weddings.
But there is another reason.
“Fear of abduction is also a
factor,” said Alemseged Weldegerima from the Ethiopian government’s Bureau
of Women, Children and Youth Affairs.
“We will try to stop abduction, not by using the police, but by increasing
the awareness of the people.”
Beside a small eucalyptus plantation Archbishop Tutu was sharing a low wooden
bench with two Elders who have broken the mould; the first woman to be president
of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and the former prime minister of Norway, and ex-head
of the World Health Organization, Gro Brundtland.
They listened to young unmarried girls with big dreams, as well as women who
had no chance of getting an education after being married off at a young
age.
Abay Asnakew is 12 and she has her life all mapped out.
“When I finish my high school I will join university; I’ll complete my BA
degree and get a job and help my family. Then if my partner has a degree too
then I will marry him,” she says.
“So what job do you want to do?” I asked.
“Prime minister,” she replied without hesitation. Look out Meles Zenawi!
Abay has joined a girls’ club known as Berhane Hewan – Amharic for “Light for
Eve”.
She has learnt about issues which have prepared her to resist early marriage;
personal health, HIV/Aids, and the medical complications associated with giving
birth at a young age, like fistula.
The Elders heard from girlshoping to avoid early marriage and some who had left school to marry
Female circumcision is also discussed and in the 36 villages where the clubs
have been set up, I am told fewer girls are now getting cut.
Beside the road several boys are playing table football. They seem to welcome
the idea of delaying marriage.
“You can’t afford to run a family when you’re too young,” said 20-year-old
Tazab, who has no plans to wed any time soon.
“Also it’s bad for a girl’s health to have children too early,” he
says.
‘Undervalued’
In a rectangular mud-walled building which serves as a meeting hall and
classroom for the Berhane Hewan participants, I met 15-year-old Serkaddis
Assefa.
“Start Quote
I still feel bad when I think about my friends who now have
jobs and have reached different positions”
End Quote Enguday Assefa
Married at 15
“Because of the Berhane Hewan programme I know about the
issue of early marriage. If I hadn’t joined, I might have been married off
already,” she said.
Sitting alongside was her mother, Enguday Assefa, whose forth child was fast
asleep on her back.
Around Ms Enguday’s neck was part of her dowry payment; a coin bearing the
face of Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie, and another of Queen Taitu,
wife of the monarch Menelik II who died in 1913.
“I still feel bad when I think about my friends who now have jobs and have
reached different positions,” said Ms Enguday, who was forced to quit school and
was already married with a child by the age of 15.
For the Elders, the behavioural change which has only happened in the last
five years is worth celebrating.
“When Nelson Mandela brought us together at our first planning meeting he did
say to us: ‘Be bold, talk to those whom others won’t talk to, be on the side of
the most deprived, the most isolated, the most undervalued in society,’” recalls
Mrs Robinson.
“And in many ways those young girls, brides and mothers are very undervalued
by their community and have very little sense of self-worth so the issue of
child marriage, as far as I’m concerned, is a very good way of having an entry
point into the effect of poverty.
“The effect of a lack of equality within communities, the effect of harmful
traditional practices on the community – the effect of all the things that the
Elders should be championing.”
Berhane Hewan started off with 700 girls and at its peak reached around
12,000 – just a small fraction of the vulnerable population.
While considered to be a successful initiative, the programme will need to be
scaled up significantly to make a major difference in Ethiopia.
For the first time the girls here are starting to shape their own
destinies.
The hope among the Elders is that lessons from Ethiopia’s Amhara Region can
be applied to other parts of the world where child marriage is common, like
India.
Nursing Scholarship Application
The Nursing Scholarship Program is accepting applications until June 1.
The Nursing Scholarship pays tuition, fees, other education costs and a living stipend to students in accredited RN training programs. In exchange, upon graduation, scholars work for at least 2 years at a facility, such as a health center, rural health clinic, nursing home or hospital, that has a critical shortage of nurses.
The Nursing Scholarship Program is a selective program of the U.S. Government that helps alleviate the critical shortage of registered nurses currently experienced by certain types of health care facilities by helping needy students complete their registered nurse training. In exchange for the scholarship, upon graduation, the newly minted nurses work at these types of facilities for at least 2 years.
Nursing Scholars fulfilling their service commitment receive a competitive salary and benefits package, which they negotiate directly with the employing facility.
Applications are accepted once each year. Applicants selected to receive the scholarship are notified by email no later than August 31. For Nursing scholarship application: http://answers.hrsa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/119
For College Students: Six Facts about the American Opportunity Tax Credit
There is still time left to take advantage of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a credit that will help many parents and college students offset the cost of college. This tax credit is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and is available through December 31, 2010. It can be claimed by eligible taxpayers for college expenses paid in 2009 and 2010.
Here are six important facts the IRS wants you to know about the American Opportunity Tax Credit:
- -This credit, which expands and renames the existing Hope Credit, can be claimed for qualified tuition and related expenses that you pay for higher education in 2009 and 2010. Qualified tuition and related expenses include tuition, related fees, books and other required course materials.
- -The credit is equal to 100 percent of the first $2,000 spent per student each year and 25 percent of the next $2,000. Therefore, the full $2,500 credit may be available to a taxpayer who pays $4,000 or more in qualifying expenses for an eligible student.
- -The full credit is generally available to eligible taxpayers who make less than $80,000 or $160,000 for married couples filing a joint return. The credit is gradually reduced, however, for taxpayers with incomes above these levels.
- -Forty percent of the credit is refundable, so even those who owe no tax can get up to $1,000 of the credit for each eligible student as cash back.
- The credit can be claimed for qualified expenses paid for any of the first four years of post-secondary education.
- -You cannot claim the tuition and fees tax deduction in the same year that you claim the American Opportunity Tax Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit. You must choose to either take the credit or the deduction and should consider which is more beneficial for you.
Complete details on the American Opportunity Tax Credit and other key tax provisions of the Recovery Act are available at IRS.gov/recovery.
Can the Buy Side Take on the Sell Side?
By James Kwak
The Economist did not like 13 Bankers: “A broader perspective would have led to more nuanced conclusions. The origins of America’s financial ‘oligarchy’, for instance, might have more to do with campaign-finance rules and political appointees than banks’ size. The faith that Messrs Johnson and Kwak put in merely capping the size of banks is misplaced.”*
But a reader pointed us to the Economist columnist who goes by the name of Buttonwood (the site of the founding of the New York Stock Exchange), who seems a bit more favorable. In a recent column criticizing the rent-seeking of the financial sector, Buttonwood seems to tell broadly the same story: Read the rest of this entry at http://baselinescenario.com/
Precious Ethiopian psalter will take its rightful place
By Nancy Haught
Benjamin Brink/The OregonianSteve Delamarter sits with the royal Psalter made for Emperor Menilek II.Before he opened it, Steve Delamarter knew the book before him would be extraordinary. The smooth sienna leather was worn in a few places but hand-tooled and carefully fitted together inside the cover. The rough edges of its yellow parchment pages didn’t look hand-cut. Then he recognized the intricate section headers, entwined lines of red, green and yellow ink, as the work of a government scriptorium.
Delamarter, an Old Testament professor at George Fox Evangelical Seminary, is founder and director of the Ethiopian Manuscript Imaging Project. In the past five years he’s tracked down 900 rare books owned by dealers and collectors outside the African country. He and his team digitize the contents, creating copies for Ethiopian libraries. It’s an attempt to preserve some of the cultural heritage that’s been lost in the turmoil of Ethiopia’s history.
So Delamarter is used to handling rare manuscripts. Those he works with are often well-worn religious volumes, handwritten in Ge’ez, the ancient liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He’s examined many Psalters, books of Psalms and other texts used for prayer.
But this one was different.
Buried inside was a rare marker that Delamarter had seen only once before. In a kind of handmade reverse, a line of white letters stood out against a line of red ink. He ran his index finger under the words as he translated aloud: “This book belongs to the king of kings, Menilek.”
Delamarter took the book to Saint John’s University in Minnesota, where he showed it to his mentor and colleague, Getatchew Haile, an Ethiopian expatriate and expert on Ethiopian manuscripts. “This,” Haile told Delamarter, “is a national treasure.”
Emperor Menilek II (1844-1913) united the separate kingdoms of modern Ethiopia in 1889 and thwarted an Italian invasion in 1896. He modernized his country by introducing banking, a postal system, railway, electricity, telephones, telegraphs and automobiles. But he’s also remembered in Africa and parts of Asia for resisting imperialism.
“This was his personal Psalter, with which he’d pray every morning,” Haile says in a telephone interview. “It was one of the items that he touched. This is important museum material.”
Except that it belongs to someone else.
Ethiopia has struggled — and still does — with its own diversity and violence from inside and out. Political unrest has forced thousands to flee. Some have taken manuscripts and other cultural treasures with them, Haile says. His own story attests to the violence that has plagued Ethiopia. A coup deposed Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. Haile, a Ge’ez scholar at what is now Addis Ababa University, was shot as he resisted arrest. Haile was allowed to leave Ethiopia to receive medical care — he is a paraplegic — and came to the United States in 1976. A MacArthur Fellow, he is curator of the Ethiopian Study Center at the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library in Minnesota.
Delamarter, interested in scribal communities who still transcribe religious texts by hand, first visited Ethiopia in 2004. He saw widespread poverty tempting Ethiopians to sell religious manuscripts to tourists or book dealers. A personal prayer book, worth the equivalent of $100 to another Ethiopian, may be sold to a tourist or book dealer for $300 or $400, Delamarter says. Collectors will pay $1,200 for the same volume, $2,000 if it’s illustrated. And some take manuscripts apart and sell the pages separately.
Menilek’s Psalter, which Delamarter dates from the late 19th or early 20th century, is owned by Gerald Weiner, a manuscript collector who is also a senior vice president of Morgan Stanley in Chicago. The Psalter was in a batch of books Weiner bought from a dealer. Neither was aware of the book’s value until Weiner entrusted it to Delamarter for digitalization.
It was Haile’s idea that Delamarter ask Weiner to give the book to a new museum planned in Ankober, Ethiopia, to be dedicated to Menilek. Delamarter had never made such a request of a book owner, he says. He’d been content to create digital copies and preserve the contents for the use of students and scholars.
“The more I tell collectors how valuable a book is, the more they want to hold on to it — or sell it,” Delamarter says. He estimated that Menilek’s Psalter was worth about $18,000, but he prepared “a 19-minute presentation” for Weiner and made the call.
A manuscript collector for about eight years, Weiner specializes in Ethiopian Jewish texts and plans to donate his collection to the University of California at Los Angeles, which is home to many Ethiopian refugees. Delamarter says Weiner listened to the opening of that 19-minute pitch.
“As soon as he told me how important this work was, its importance to the Ethiopian people, I wanted to do the right thing,” Weiner says. “I wanted the book to be back where it belonged, honoring the man who owned it.”
Delamarter leaves Monday to return the book to Ethiopia, where eventually it will be displayed in the Ankober Municipal Museum. Much as he’d like to, Haile can’t go with him.
“I never thought the owner would just give it back,” Haile marvels, “so precious a book that is his own property. That was my first thought, but some people have a good heart.”
Nancy Haught: 503-294-7625; nancyhaught@news.oregonian.com
The Nursing Scholarship Program is accepting applications until Thursday, May 6,
Free-Money
The Nursing Scholarship pays tuition, fees, other education costs and a living stipend to students in accredited RN training programs. In exchange, upon graduation, scholars work for at least 2 years at a facility, such as a health center, rural health clinic, nursing home or hospital, that has a critical shortage of nurses.
You submit the scholarship application in two parts:
- On-line application
- Supplemental forms and required documentation that you need to download, complete, print and mail or fax
Both parts must be submitted by the application deadline, so don’t delay. Go to the Nursing Scholarship Program, where you will find the on-line application, supplemental forms, and Application and Program Guidance, which you should read carefully before submitting your application. For more info click here: http://www.hrsa.gov/loanscholarships/scholarships/nursing/
The warning sign of Earthquakes in Ethiopia
Earthquake in Ethiopia: Chile or Haiti?
Samson Tesfaye
Earthquakes occur in Ethiopia along the Rift Valley and its surroundings. A few notable past earthquakes include Kara Kore in the 1961, Serdo in 1969, and Dobe (Afar) in 1989.
The level of destruction of an earthquake, among other things, is a function of its magnitude and proximity to built-up areas. If an earthquake strikes a remote place, its impact would be negligible. However, if it strikes close to densely populated areas the impact could be catastrophic.
In recent weeks, the world has witnessed two major earthquakes – in Haiti (January 12, 2010) and in Chile, on February 27, 2010 – with totally different outcomes in terms of human and economic loss. The Chilean earthquake was a much stronger magnitude 8.8, while the Haitian earthquake was a magnitude seven.
However, the magnitude of destruction is significantly less in Chile than it was in Haiti. The number of lives lost in Chile is estimated to be in the hundreds whereas in Haiti it is in the hundreds of thousands.
Why such a disparity?
The answer is in the earthquake preparedness. Chile is a country that has been hit by major earthquakes in the past and has adopted strict building codes that would withstand a certain level of ground shaking, while Haiti did not. Unfortunately, the effect is reflected in the level of destruction and number of lives lost.
Earthquakes have happened in Ethiopia and will happen in the future, that is a given. The magnitude of the earthquakes, however, should not be as big as the ones in Chile or Haiti.
How prepared is the country in the event of an earthquake?
The recent construction boom in the country has seen the erection of high-rise buildings in Addis Abeba and other cities.
Do we have building codes suitable for earthquake prone areas? How strictly are these building codes enforced?
Earthquake preparedness also involves raising public awareness of the potential problem. It would be wonderful to hear from the appropriate government officials on the issue of earthquake preparedness in the country.
Which scenario will play out in the event of an earthquake striking a populated area in Ethiopia – Chile or Haiti?
On the trail of Ethiopia aid and guns
Images of the famine in Ethiopia moved millions of people around the world to reach in to their pockets and donate to international aid efforts. But as Martin Plaut has been discovering, there is a disturbing allegation few would choose to confront.
It was the early 1980s. The famine, which would soon devastate much of northern Ethiopia, was already evident. I had gone on the long, difficult journey through Sudan and into Eritrea with rebels who had been fighting the government for more than 20 years. My wife, Gill, had come with me. As a nurse she was fascinated by the way the rebels were treating their injured, carrying out difficult operations in makeshift wards dug into the mountains. But now it was time for me to go up to the frontline and for her to go home. It was late at night, and I remember wondering to myself what I would say to her mother if anything went wrong as Gill got into one of the aid lorries rumbling their way back to Sudan. Sitting in a bunker, I had no idea where we were in this vast, arid landscape. I was entirely reliant on the rebels who had brought us in. Live Aid
For years the rains had failed and by 1984 millions were starving. Thanks in no small part to the help of Bob Geldof and Live Aid, people responded as never before. Millions of dollars were raised. Food was brought in. Many died, but the worst was averted – or so I thought. But a year ago, I began hearing a different take. I was contacted by Ethiopians who said we had all missed the real story of how money given with such worthy objectives had ended up being used to buy weapons. I began making enquiries. Gun money Aregawi Berhe is the former army commander of the rebel movement that operated in the Ethiopian province of Tigray. He now lives in a modest flat in the back streets of a Dutch town. He insisted on making me coffee. Then he told me his version of what took place all those years ago – how the lightly-armed rebels he led took on the mighty Ethiopian army which had all the latest Soviet weaponry. He told me that as the money began flowing in to feed the starving, a bitter debate had taken place inside the rebel movement. There were divisions over how the cash should be spent.
He also explained how the aid money was diverted not just to buy weapons his troops needed, but also to build a hardline, Stalinist party – the Marxist Leninist League of Tigray. This initiative, he said, was led by a young ideologue, Meles Zenawi. In the bitter infighting, Aregawi and his allies lost out. Money that was being channelled through the rebel side went to the party and to buy guns. In 1985, Aregawi told me, just 5% of $100m (£65m) they received went to the starving. It was an extraordinary tale, but perhaps Aregawi and his associates were just embittered men, trying to blacken the names of their former comrades? After all, Meles Zenawi went on to become Ethiopia’s prime minister and served with distinction on the Commission for Africa set up by former British prime minister Tony Blair.
Secret CIA reports So over the next months I spoke to people from Alaska to Australia, from Scandinavia to Palestine. I accumulated evidence from secret CIA reports. Former ambassadors supported the story Aregawi had told me. Facts were found in the dusty back issues of obscure newsletters. Even former Ethiopian government officials, who had been on the government side of the conflict said they believed it was true. Was it significant that so many people refused to speak about these events, including civil servants, academics and politicians like Meles Zenawi? Even Bob Geldof, who is not usually reluctant to talk, turned me down. It became clear that 25 years on, this was still a subject too sensitive to be discussed openly. Money trail One person who did talk to me was Max Peberdy. He is an aid consultant, who had carried nearly $500,000 (£331,00) worth in local currency into Tigray to buy surplus grain to feed the starving. Despite telling him the evidence I had collected, he insists the money did not go astray. I pointed out that he had been entirely reliant on the rebels to take him in, and that their Marxist-Leninist ideology ran counter to every notion of an independent aid operation.
I also explained that he had been unable to monitor the distribution of aid in the Ethiopian highlands that were the scenes of the most intense fighting. As I left his London home I thought back to when I waved goodbye to Gill with an Eritrean fighter by my side. I thought about just how isolated I had been – entirely dependent on the rebels who had taken me in. And how I had failed to ask the right questions at the time. Although I was now finally following the trail of the money and the rebel guns, I am only too aware that I was making these enquiries 20 years too late. The aid workers who did so much to help those suffering back then had not asked those questions either. But perhaps they would not have saved so many lives if they had. Source BBC |
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Money that was being channelled through the rebel side went to the party and to buy guns 
Ethiopians honour victims of Mengistu Red Terror
DERG
ADDIS ABABA — Ethiopia inaugurated a museum on Sunday in memory of the victims of former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam’s so-called Red Terror purge which killed tens of thousands in the 1970s
Dozens of family members and government officials attended a sombre ceremony at the memorial in Addis Ababa to remember their loved ones, whose bodies were mostly dumped in mass graves.
The museum took three years to complete and honours the dead with photographs of the 1977-78 campaign of state terror carried out under the orders of Mengistu to wipe out his opponents.
“Our aim is to promote unity and tolerance. Ethiopia has had a troubled past, and we don’t want that suffering to be experienced again,” Ayne Tsige, chair of the organising committee, told AFP.
Mengistu, now in exile in Zimbabwe, was sentenced to death on genocide charges two years ago along with 17 of his henchmen following a decade-long trial in Addis Ababa.
The former army lieutenant colonel was a member of the Marxist junta known as the Derg which ruled Ethiopia from between 1974 and 1991 after the ouster of emperor Haile Selassie.
Experts say as many as 100,000 people were killed during the campaign as Mengistu sought to transform the country into a Soviet-style workers’ state.
The regime, then battling a number of insurgencies throughout the country, used several tactics to scare opponents, one of which was leaving dead bodies on streets as a warning.
The corpses were later exhumed from mass graves. A number of their belongings are exhibited in the museum.
Eighty-five year-old Tedla Zeyohannes, whose son was killed by the regime called on African leaders to press Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to hand over Mengistu.
“I’m very happy with the sentence, but Zimbabwe should hand over Mengistu. He is a convicted criminal who must face justice,” he said.
Source: AFP
Seven Things You Should Know About Checking the Status of Your Refund
Tax refund
Are you expecting a tax refund from the Internal Revenue Service this year? If so, here are seven things you should know about checking the status of your refund once you have filed your federal tax return.
1. Online Access to Refund Information Where’s My Refund? or ¿Dónde está mi reembolso? are interactive tools on IRS.gov and the fastest, easiest way to get information about your federal income tax refund. Whether you split your refund among several accounts, opted for direct deposit into one account, used part of your refund to buy U.S. savings bonds or asked the IRS to mail you a check, Where’s My Refund? and ¿Dónde está mi reembolso? give you online access to your refund information nearly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s quick, easy and secure.
2. When to Check Refund Status If you e-file, you can get refund information 72 hours after the IRS acknowledges receipt of your return. If you file a paper return, refund information will generally be available three to four weeks after mailing your return.
3. What You Need to Check Refund Status When checking the status of your refund, have your federal tax return handy. To get your personalized refund information you must enter:
Your Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
Your filing status which will be Single, Married Filing Joint Return, Married Filing Separate Return, Head of Household, or Qualifying Widow(er)
Exact whole dollar refund amount shown on your tax return
4. What the Online Tool Will Tell You Once you enter your personal information, you could get several responses, including:
Acknowledgement that your return was received and is in processing.
The mailing date or direct deposit date of your refund.
Notice that the IRS could not deliver your refund due to an incorrect address. In this instance, you may be able to change or correct your address online using Where’s My Refund?.
5. Customized Information Where’s My Refund? also includes links to customized information based on your specific situation. The links guide you through the steps to resolve any issues affecting your refund. For example, if you do not get the refund within 28 days from the original IRS mailing date shown on Where’s My Refund?, you may be able to start a refund trace.
6. Visually Impaired Taxpayers Where’s My Refund? is also accessible to visually impaired taxpayers who use the Job Access with Speech screen reader used with a Braille display and is compatible with different JAWS modes.
7. Toll-free Number If you do not have internet access, you can check the status of your refund in English or Spanish by calling the IRS Refund Hotline at 800-829-1954 or the IRS TeleTax System at 800-829-4477. When calling, you must provide your or your spouse’s Social Security number, filing status and the exact whole dollar refund amount shown on your return.
Refund checks are normally sent out weekly on Fridays. If you check the status of your refund and are not given the date it will be issued, please wait until the next week before checking back.
Source IRS
