Ethiopian Artist Teddy Afro and his wife Amleset Muchie safely arrived in Canada

Italian Agencies to Invest $2.6M in Ethiopian Coffee Sector

SANDRA TURNER

Italian agencies and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization(UNIDO) have signed a financing agreement that will invest approximately $2.6 million USD in the Ethiopian coffee sector in a project called “Improving the Sustainability and Inclusiveness of the Ethiopian Coffee Value Chain through Private and Public Partnership.”

Supported by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the project will be implemented by UNIDO in partnership with Italian coffee giant Illycaffè and the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the Illy-family-run nonprofit that has historically focused on scientific research in the coffee sector. The groups said they will work closely with Ethiopian coffee institutions, including the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority, which was officially re-formed last May.

The overarching goal of the three-year project is to increase the quality, traceability and international recognition of Ethiopian coffee to increase export revenues and generate more income for the country’s thousands of smallholder farmers.

With implementation in Addis Ababa and the Oromia and SNNP regions, the program is being designed to provide direct support to smallholders and cooperatives through the dissemination of best practices for coffee agronomy, along with tool kits for post-harvest processing, washing station infrastructure development, cupping laboratory creation and modern marketing strategies.

The project will also provide the Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority with financial support and an Addis-based coffee roasting training center designed to develop skills while promoting domestic development of roasted coffee.

A joint announcement from the Italian development agency and UNIDO said the role of Illycaffé and the Ernesto Illy Foundation will include financial support as well as work directly with project partners to scale up “local capacities and knowledge of the coffee value chain,” as well as “serving as trading facilitators and advisors.”

“The coffee value chain is very important for this country,” Italian Agency for
Development Cooperation Addis Ababa office head Ginevra Letizia said in a public announcement of the signing issued last week. “Coffee is a treasure of the culture of Ethiopia and it is a duty to improve the coffee production. The genetic variety is the most important in the world and the government strategy rightly stresses the importance of improving the traceability and the quality of the Ethiopian coffee”

Some of the Groundbreaking African Speakers at TEDGlobal 2017

Eritrean journalist & human rights activist Meron Estefanos and Kenyan inventor & mechanical engineer Kamau Gachigi are in the list of TEDGlobal 2017 African Speakers.

TEDGlobal has released a preview list of speakers for its four day conference in Arusha, Tanzania this August, the first conference on the continent for a decade.

Details of more speakers will be released next month.

According to curator Emeka Okafor the Africans on this list have “fresh, unique perspectives in their initiatives, pronouncements and work.”

Okafor says the aim of the conference is to unite a large group with genuine interest in improving the continent. He added that he hopes the speakers will spark global discussions around the need to find solutions from within Africa and the diaspora.

Here are some of the African speakers on the preview list:

Kamau Gachigi, Maker — Kenya

Kamau Gachigi is the executive director of Gearbox, Kenya’s first open maker space for rapid prototyping. With Gearbox, Gachigi empowers Kenya’s next generation of creators to build sustainable solutions to the challenges in Africa.

He was also responsible for manufacturing and prototyping tools in 2009 whilst heading the University of Nairobi’s Science and Technology Park.

Oshiorenoya Agabi, Computational neuroscientist — Nigeria

When Oshiorenoya Agabi started Koniku his plan was to build a device capable of thinking like a human in two to five years.He is working to integrate biological neurons and silicon computer chips to build computers that can think like humans.

“Faster, cleverer computer chips are key to solving the next big batch of computing problems, like particle detection or sophisticated climate modeling — and to get there, we need to move beyond the limitations of silicon” Agabi said.

Natsai Audrey Chieza, Design researcher — Zimbabwe

Natsai Audrey Chieza is the founder and creative director of Faber Futures, a creative R&D studio that redefines technology and biodesign. Chieza’s work as a design researcher crosses boundaries between technology, biology, design and cultural studies.

Whilst at University College London, she created a design led microbiology protocol that replaces synthetic pigments with natural dyes excreted by bacteria to produce silk scarves dyed in different hues. Her creation is helping to reprogram the system of fashion and textile production especially in cases of resource scarcity, source and cultural particularity

Woman’s Family in Vancouver Pleading for Help Finding a Bone Marrow Donor

“I love to live. I want to be with my kids. I want to smile again. I want to play with them again. If you save my life, you will save my whole family,” said Elsa Nega in her video appeal for a donor.

Vancouver surgeon and the University of British Columbia (UBC) professor Ronald Lett is appealing to the public for help in finding a bone marrow transplant for his wife Elizabeth Nega, who has an aggressive form of leukemia.

Elizabeth Nega, better known as Elsa Nega, discovered that she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia in February and urgently needs a bone marrow transplant. However, the Ethiopian Canadian wife and mother of two has been unable to find a match because of the low number of African donors.

Ronald Lett and Elsa Nega are now reaching out to people of African descent to register as bone marrow donors. They’ve started a website, match4elsa.com, as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts, to find Elsa and other African-Canadians life saving transplants.

“I love to live. I want to be with my kids. I want to smile again. I want to play with them again. If you save my life, you will save my whole family,” said Elsa Nega in her video appeal for a donor.

Lett is the founder and international director of the charity, Canadian Network for International Surgery (CNIS). He met Elsa in Ethiopia while he was there training local doctors to perform essential surgeries.



After dedicating his life to helping others, Lett says being unable to help his wife in her time of need has been difficult.

“I helplessly watch as the love of my life suffers terribly, has devastating complications from her treatment but has no promise of a cure,” said Lett.

“Transplant, which only works half the time, is our only hope and all the news concerning a match for Elsa has been bad too.”

Lack of donor diversity

Since discovering that she had leukemia, Elsa has been put through several rounds of chemotherapy, but after failing to go into remission, obtaining stem cells from a bone marrow transplant has become her only hope of recovery.

Her brother and sister in Ethiopia were her best chance, but neither were a match.

The larger issue in finding a donor for Elsa is the lack of diversity in the donor registry.

Of the 405,000 Canadians on the stem cell registry, only 800 have an African background, and none are a match for Elsa Nega, according to Chris van Doorn with the One Match Program.

An Ethiopian won Georgia $1.3 Million Lottery

Payne said he was out running errands when he stopped to purchase at K&R Food Mart on Senoia Road in Fairburn. It wasn't until later, when he checked his numbers, that he realized he'd won. Payne said he was ecstatic.

"I was smiling and jumping for joy," he said. "When I told my life, she didn't believe me." The 63-year-old plans to use his prize money to pay off some bills and use the rest to relocate to St. Petersburg, Fla.

"I've been trying to get back down there since I retired," he told lottery officials. "I'm grateful." Payne claimed his prize last week at the Georgia Lottery headquarters.

The winner of the second ticket, Alganesh Gebremeskel, came forward Wednesday. A Texaco Hop, on Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain sold her that second winning ticket.