Life styles 
Molla becomes first Ethiopian deputy Knesset speaker
By LAHAV HARKOV
If both President Shimon Peres and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin were out of the country, Molla could serve as Israel’s president. MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima) was elected deputy Knesset speaker on Wednesday, and will become the first Ethiopian to fill the role when the Knesset summer recess ends in late October.
If both President Shimon Peres and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin were out of the country, Molla could serve as Israel’s president.
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“I’m honored to serve in such an important job in Israeli democracy, and be able to set the Knesset’s agenda together with the speaker and his other deputies,” Molla said.
“I hope [other Ethiopians] will see me and realize that they can go far and break the glass ceiling,” he explained.
Molla, who made aliya from the Gondar province of Ethiopia at age 19 in 1984, added that he hopes to show Israeli society that “immigrants from any country can be partners in building the land and the State of Israel.”
“I am very excited – there is no doubt that ‘if you will it, it is no dream,’” Molla stated, quoting Theodor Herzl. “I hope to be a model for all young people, and show young people that with perseverance and a strong will, you can succeed.”
In 2008, Molla became the second MK of Ethiopian origin.
(Adisu Massala served in Labor and One Nation from 1996-99.) Previously, he was the head of the Jewish Agency’s Ethiopian Division and a head of department at the World Zionist Organization.
He has since become a prominent member of Kadima, and an outspoken critic of the last Knesset session’s more nationalist legislation, such as the anti-boycott bill.
The Knesset Speaker has nine deputies who take his place when he is unable to preside over plenum discussions and votes. In addition, Rivlin and his deputies compile the Knesset’s agenda, and are able to reject bills from being brought to a vote in certain situations.
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The girls and women of Ethiopia
By: Rina Jimenez-DavidONE of the more remarkable things I have observed from my very short stay thus far in Addis Ababa is how the women so uncannily look like each other. Most of them are tall and willowy, with sharp noses and large beguiling eyes. The women—beginning with the flight attendants on the Ethiopian Airlines flight, to the staff and guests at the hotel—move with a grace and self-possession that I can only envy. Read more
An Ethiopian who delights in proving everyone wrong
B RUTH EGLASH
Why would Ethiopians be considered as a ticking time bomb in Israel?
According to Abebe, “in Israel, Ethiopians are treated in the same way that Hamas is viewed; we are considered a ticking time bomb in society, with the authorities sending our children to special schools and considering all of them to be ‘at risk.’” He continues, “I want these young people to become integrated in Israeli society. They are Israeli-born sabras, and they deserve to be part of the mainstream, and they can help their community better from the outside than from inside.” Read more...
By Meirafe Berhane
Netsanet Fekade, 24, a sex worker, has been in the business for the past three years. She goes to the bar where she conducts her work at 10 p.m. and finishes at six or seven o’clock in the morning. “I used to live with my family and with my two sons, who are five and seven, that I gave birth to from different fathers. It used to be very difficult for me to go to my family’s house located around Kotebe after work as the place is too far,” says the young sex worker.
She has never had any savings before, since she had to contribute to the house rent, spend money on transportation, and had to endure the costs of raising her sons. However, she currently has a 500-birr-saving after she joined the Nikat Women’s Association’s drop-in center.
The center provides bedrooms for sex workers who have been working al-night long. The center provides six beds in one room and two mattresses for the children of the sex workers in its kids’ room.
The sex workers do not pay anything to the center for their stay. As Netsanet asserts, she started spending her day times at the center four months ago and has never paid for her stay; hence she has been saving.
“I sleep as long as I want, then I take a shower and cook my own food. In the near future, the center is planning to start new activities and I was told that I would be included in the activities,” the young sex worker says with excitement.
At the drop-in center, there are three more rooms: one that provide computer training, another serving as a ladies beauty salon, and another for basic education.
The young lady has had enough of being a working girl and says she wants to change her life for good. She hopes to start doing that by changing her job in a year’s time. “My deepest desire is to change this profession before my boys recognize what I do for a living.” The young mother expresses her concern that her fast growing little boys will hate and be ashamed of her when they find out that she is a sex worker.
Gelila Mekonnen, chairperson of Nikat Women’s Association drop-in center, says that the five-year-old center provides resting rooms for any sex worker and also offers educational and income generating facilities.
Together with the 26 founders of the association who have been involved in the business, the chairperson, who, herself used to be a sex worker for three years, wants to change the lives of the 189 members, of whom some are still engaged in the sex business while others have become involved in small-scale house businesses.
Among the members of the center, there are a group of chefs that cook for different occasions upon demand. They also prepare spices and some Ethiopian traditional foods – the likes of berbere and shiro.
The drop-in center has a condom shop working round the clock that also provides training on how to use condoms properly, why to use condoms, what to do in case a condom ruptures, and related issues regarding prevention of HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
Gelila got married a year ago and is now nine months pregnant. She asserts that the reason why many women become sex workers is not to satisfy the libido, but rather to stay alive.
“I want to prove that we have been misjudged by society. There is nothing wrong with our creation; so we can develop different careers. It was a matter of opportunity that we were driven into offering sex for money in order to survive, but, as any girl out there, we can learn, we can work in, or own, different businesses. We can have a normal life and start our own family,” says the ex-sex worker.
It is Gelila’s belief that when a sex worker quits, it is saving society from HIV/AIDS, one way or another. “The learning process between the sex workers would benefit society indirectly,” declares the motivated young lady. The association has been supported mainly by DKT Ethiopia, and its generic condom promotion program began with Wise Up campaign, targeting sex workers and their clients, and also Timiret Le Hiwot Ethiopia, a care network that works towards strengthening community capacity.
The reason for the association’s foundation was the death of one of the founder’s friends, from HIV/AIDS. “We didn’t have enough money to process her funeral. However, we could come up with 500 birr and we buried her at St. Urael Church. Then we decided to save 25 cents every week on our way to our ‘HIV/AIDS and related issues’ discussion sessions,” says Gelila.
After five years of consistent effort, the association now has a capital of 500,000 birr, which is being collected from different sources.
Geleila thanks her role model and link to DKT, Cheryl Overs, 52, a lawyer and senior lecturer in the medical faculty of Monash University in Australia, and a former sex worker, herself. Cheryl had joined the sex industry when she was 17, and worked continuously for three years. The lecturer said that there have been injustices for sex workers in Australia as well.
“Thirty years ago in Australia, sex workers were conducting an illegal business and they used to get arrested,” says Cheryl. “Then I began a campaign to change the law and it was successful.”
She committed herself to bringing change to the attitudes of society and the laws regarding sex workers, and worked with networks of sex-work related projects on the level of a global federation. “I work on the law and how it affects sex workers in 20 countries, in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America,” says the senior lecturer and the ex- sex worker.
Cheryl is proud of the fact that she changed that law in Australia as sex workers now have maternity leave, holiday payment, and accident compensation and have the same right as any other workers being taken care of by employers.
“That is exactly what I am dreaming about too,” Gelilla reveals. “And I am sure by duplicating many ‘Gelilas’ in Ethiopia, we can be able to help all sex workers in the country.” According to estimates, there may be close to 150,000 sex workers in Addis Ababa alone.
By Vincent T. Davis
She took English as a second language classes with instructor Linda Salem on her days off, riding three buses from downtown to St. Francis Episcopal Church near Wurzbach and Interstate 10.
“This is my country,” she told Salem. “I want to be American like everyone else.”
Salem, impressed with Tachebele's fortitude, forged a friendship with the 69-year-old immigrant and offered on-call tutoring sessions. Read more:
Israel unanimously approves immigration of 8,000 Falashmura from Ethiopia
Unlike Ethiopian Jews, Falashmura are not allowed into Israel under the Law of Return and will convert during absorption process.
The cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved a plan to bring 7,846 members of the Ethiopian Falashmura community to Israel over the next four years, after years of lobbying.
Over the past decade, the cabinet has voted several times to bring to Israel the remaining members of the Falashmura in Ethiopia. But each time, it discovered that the transit camps in northern Ethiopia, where they were based, were being filled with
Ethiopians who claimed to belong to the "Seed of Israel" and had relatives in Israel.
Activists who support the rights of the Falashmura to immigrate to Israel had promised to end all lobbying activities on their behalf if the proposal was approved.
The rights of the Falashmura to immigrate to Israel has sparked controversy, with opponents arguing that members of this community are Christians whose link to Judaism either does not exist or is weak, and for this reason, it is impossible to estimate how many will eventually seek to immigrate to Israel.
Unlike Ethiopian Jews, the Falashmura are not being allowed into Israel under the Law of Return. Consequently, as part of their absorption process, they undergo conversion and become naturalized citizens.
Evolution of the Konso People in Ethiopia
A photo exhibition by Cristina Senserrich titled "Konso: the Evolution of a Legendary People" is due to open Monday at the National Museum.
The exhibition depicts the culture, traditions and lifestyle of the Konso community, one of the least known in the south of Ethiopia.
The cultural progress, the construction of new roads and the increasing tourism imply a striking evolution for the people of Konso, putting at risk their original culture and former traditions.
The exhibition has five different themes including the lifestyle of the Konso people, the landscape and the terrace system, childhood and education, the market, and Kalla Gezahegn and his environment (one of the nine chief clans).
The work is formed by a rigorous selection of 40 photographs accompanied by seven descriptive texts. The project is complemented by an audiovisual documentary of about 25 minutes directed by Albert Gual and Cristina Senserrich.
The opening of the exhibition will include an address by Dr. Francisco Giner Abati, an anthropologist from University of Salamanca, Spain.
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