Awassa
Table of contents
- 1. People
- 2. Purpose
- 3. Press
- 4. Presence
- 4.1. United States Tour - Fall 2008
- 4.1.1.1. Tour Responses and Reports:
- 4.1.2. 10/3 Fri: New York City
- 4.1.3. 10/4 Sat: San Francisco
- 4.1.4. 10/5 Sun: Berkeley
- 4.1.5. 10/7 Tue: SF Bay Area
- 4.1.6. 10/8 Wed Santa Cruz
- 4.1.7. 10/11 Sat: Los Angeles
- 4.1.8. 10/12 Sun: San Diego, CA
- 4.1.9. 10/14 Tue: fly LA to Boston
- 4.1.10. 10/23 Jamestown NY
- 4.1.11. 10/25 Pittsburgh, PA
- 4.1.12. 10/26 Pittsburgh, PA
- 4.1.13. 10/28 Chicago
- 4.1.14. 11/4 Boston, MA
- 4.1. United States Tour - Fall 2008
- 5. Past
- 5.1. On the Evolution of the Awassa Youth Campus
- 5.1.1. 1997 Debub Nigat is formed
- 5.1.2. 1998-2001 Debub Nigat acquires city land and flourishes
- 5.1.3. 2001-2003 AIDS Education joins the repertoire and the support base grows
- 5.1.4. 2004 Debub Nigat makes video
- 5.1.5. 2004 Circus leader Tesfaye Tekelu starts aikido training
- 5.1.6. 2005 The Idea of Awassa Peace Dojo evolves
- 5.1.7. 2006 Awassa Youth Campus (AYC) is created
- 5.1.8. 2007-08 International support expands
- 5.1. On the Evolution of the Awassa Youth Campus
Aiki Extensions has a direct partnership with the Awassa Children's Project that results in the Awassa Peace Dojo
People
see their page http://www.awassachildrensproject.org/acp_directors.asp
Tesfaye Tekelu will undertake a training tour before returning to Africa.
His schedule is available here and questions may be directed to him by email.
Purpose
Within the Awassa Children's Project, in 2006 John McKay, Tesfaye Tekelu, and Meshu Tamrat started the Awassa Youth Campus (AYC), a registered Ethiopian NGO and a safe multidisciplinary learning environment for young people of all backgrounds. AYC activities are designed to compliment the formal education in schools by providing constructive, creative and expressive outlets for youth. AYC supports youth in developing and implementing youth-driven HIV/AIDS awareness raising campaigns in the community, throughout Ethiopia and beyond! The major components of the AYC model are the Aikido Peace Dojo, the In-Campus Activities and Outreach Programs.
Tesfaye Tekelu continues to teach at
and manage the Awassa Peace Dojo with stunning success. The dojo offers
classes 7 days a week, for students at varying levels, and with a total
current enrolment of 75.This is no mere sports aikido. It is
informed by aiki principles and the students are continuously exposed
to the peace-building aspects of the practice.The students' enthusiasm became so hot
that, to have better space for practice, they built a beautiful new
dojo on the campus made of bamboo and other local materials.
The Youth Campus students completed two
ten-city tours in the past year. Along with performances of the OneLove
Theater, which promotes HIV/AIDS education and related social messages,
they offer aikido demos wherever they go. Some of their demos have
been seen on national TV. Most people in urban Ethiopia now know
something about aikido as a result.
Tesfaye's own training has proceeded apace through this time. In July 2007 he trained intensively at the Zurich "TAB-Z" camp directed by Kurt Bartholet Sensei and received promotion to the rank of 2nd kyu. He trained with an Aiki Corps volunteer from the Middle East for a few weeks in August, with David Weinstock sensei for five weeks in the fall, with Don Levine for two weekends in January, and in May-June during the visit of Emanuel Paulos, Ethiopia's first yudansha, a student of Bob Frager sensei.
Awassa donations made through Aiki Extensions have the smallest possible percentage directed toward administration, go first to cover expenses for the Awassa Peace Dojo and the training of its staff, and then to support the Awassa Youth Campus as a whole. As always, financial records are public and available via email to staff@aiki-extensions.org. If you would like to donate to the Awassa Children's Project as a whole please use this link. http://www.awassachildrensproject.org/donate_home.asp
Presence
This Fall key figures from Awassa will tour the United States, traveling in the East Coast, Chicago, and California. We will maintain updates here as they become available.
United States Tour - Fall 2008
Tour Responses and Reports:
10/3 Fri: New York City
2:15pm edt Performing the World Conference, Performance/Presentation at 543 W. 42nd, betw. 10th and 11th. Call David Schein at 716-640-4639 or email awassachildrensproject@hotmail.com for information and reservations.
10/4 Sat: San Francisco
Krishna meets group in the evening, after flight from New York to go out on the town in SF, be social, and plan/promote coming events.
10/5 Sun: Berkeley
Participating in Teaching Aikido to Kids seminar, held this year at Aikido of Berkeley
(schedule here http://www.gashuku.net/Kenshukai2008.htm, from lunch until
The public is welcome to join us after 3:00pdt as the seminar ends
Email Brandon WilliamsCraig with questions at brandon@aiki-extensions.org, Aikido of Berkeley is at 1352 S 49th St Richmond, CA 94804. Please contribute generously to help this essential work flourish.
3:15 Awassa video presentation and story-telling
7pm-9pm DANCE PERFORMANCE at THEATRE ARTAUD 450 Florida street, SF, CA 94110
ADORIA CARADINE, JOHN AND KRIS LE FAN, AND THE AWASSA YOUTH CAMPUS
AFTER ARTAUD BENEFIT PARTY @ CIRCOLO Restaurant & Lounge. 500 Florida St. SF, CA 94110. CONTACT KRIS LE FAN 323.387.2770 krislefan@gmail.com
Home host: Aikido of Berkeley
10/6 Mon: Krishna flies south and leaves group with rental car to hit other SF Bay Area destinations.
10/7 Tue: SF Bay Area
6pm Aikido of Berkeley training, fundraising performance, and gathering for conversation
The public is welcome to watch training or try a class and join us for the presentation afterward,
Email Brandon WilliamsCraig with questions at brandon@aiki-extensions.org, Aikido of Berkeley is at 1352 S 49th St Richmond, CA 94804. Please contribute generously to help this essential work flourish.
Home host: Aikido of Berkeley?
10/8 Wed Santa Cruz
Greyhound bus to Santa Cruz in the morning - Neil Mick hosting
3pm+ Aikido of Santa Cruz training, performance, meeting the community, and teaching in our Youth Program!
3:15 - 4:15pm Aikido training (Ages 6 - 9) Tesfaye teaching
4:30 - 5:30pm Aikido Training (Ages 9 - 12) Tesfaye teaching
5:50-6pm Presentation/Performance
6:00 - 7:30pm Aikido General Adult Training Neil Mick Sensei
The public is welcome to watch training or try a class and join us for a presentation.
Email your questions to neilmick@hotmail.com>
Aikido of Santa Cruz is at 306 Mission St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060. Please contribute generously to help this essential work flourish.
10/9 Thur: More training!
1:15-2:40pm General Training Yoshi Shibata Sensei
3-4:30pm ASC Teens Aimen al Rafai Sensei
7-8:30pm ASC Adult Training Glen Kimoto Sensei
10/10 Fri: Master-Dance Class
3-5pm Cabrillo College: AYC Teach Master Dance Class Rm 1117 (Cabrillo Gym). Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos. General Public welcome! Free Admission!
10/12 Sun: San Diego, CA
2-6pm Training / 6-7pm Refreshments, time to talk and meet our guests
980 Buenos Ave, San Diego, CA 92147
$25 - $75 (sliding scale, it’s a fundraiser, tax-deductible)
For more information / pre-registration
jamiesensei@aol.com / 760-492-4653
Read Jamie Sensie's story and see images here.
10/13 Mon: face time, meetings, fundraising and pack/prep to fly east
10/23 Jamestown NY
7:30 PM, Performance/Presentation Fundraiser, Reg Studio Theater, 116 E. Third St., Contact David Schein, 716-640-4639, awassachildrensproject@hotmail.com.
10/25 Pittsburgh, PA
Ethiopian Dance Seminar by Tesfaye Tekelu, 10 AM to noon at the
Icehouse (100 43rd St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201.) Workshop fee: $20.
All levels welcome. For more information call Ben Sota at 412-390-4054 or go to ZanyUmbrellaCircus.com/Ethiopa
10/26 Pittsburgh, PA
6:30PM Zany
Umbrella Circus in conjunction with the One Love Theatre from Ethiopia
presents:Circus Party for Ethiopia at Icehouse Artists' Studios in
Lawrenceville
100 43rd St, Pittsburgh,PA 15201. Proceeds will promote youth activities in Ethiopia. Suggested donation: $5. For more information call Ben Sota at 412-390-4054 or go to http://ZanyUmbrellaCircus.com/Ethiopa
10/27 Pittsburgh to Chicago (Drive ca 8-9 hours)
10/28 Chicago
Meet with members/train at two Chicago dojos. Meet with donors. Host: Don. 773-241-6373
10/29 2:30-4:15 Participate in mat class with 25 UofC College students.
7pm Awassa Youth Campus' One Love AIDS/HIV Awareness Theater Performance/Presentation
NorthSide Preparatory High Shcoo 5501 Kedzie Ave. Chicago, IL 60625
Stundents $5, Adults $10
produced by (contact for more info) Tasha Viets Van Lear - Global Citizens Corps (Mercy Corps).
For information: Contact Tasha at 773-793-9666 or artsconnect@aol.com
10/30 Chicago
Day off. Blue Man Theater group. Host: David Schein
10/31 Chicago
Meet with members/train at two Chicago dojos. Meet w/ Donors.
Host: Don
11/1 Chicago
1:30-6pm Chicago area Friendship Seminar. AYC presentation. Buffet dinner.
Host: Hyde Park Peace Dojo, 5480 S. Kenwood Ave.
Contact: Dan Kimmel at dan@aiki-extensions.org
11/2 Chicago
4:30-8:00p Program at Ras Dashen Restaurant, 5844 N Broadway St Chicago, IL 60660 (773) 506-9601
Contact: FasikaAlem.773-732-3589 or fyirga@yahoo.com
11/3 Drive to Boston.
Past
On the Evolution of the Awassa Youth Campus
1997 Debub Nigat is formed
Some talented children gymnasts in Awassa were training together when Bereket Dana, a friend of the children of Woizero Aster Dabels of Awassa, assembled several of them to form a circus for business purposes. Of the originating Debub Nigat participants, six participate currently in the Awassa Youth Campus programs: Ayenu Filipos, Merid Mattewos, Mesfin Gebeyehu, Simheret Teshoma, Tesfaye Tekelu and Ulbe Zema. Until recently, Meshu Tamrat was also a part of this group.1998-2001 Debub Nigat acquires city land and flourishes
In 1999 Aster and her sister Sunnait began to feed the circus kids, some of whom were orphans, once a week. To meet them Aster brought Dr. Hermann Hunzinger of Freiburg, who soon began to raise money for the group. Aster secured a grant for a self-sustaining vocational training center and with Bereket and others signed an agreement to create a combined circus and vocational training center on land donated by the municipal government. Then circus grew into an organization of performing groups at three different levels of competence, with a combined total of some three hundred participants. They gave dozens of performances in the Awassa region, performed in Addis for an orphans' home, and won trophies in national circus competitions.2001-2003 AIDS Education joins the repertoire and the support base grows
Dr. Hermann invited Chicago-based theater director David Schein to Awassa and to add a program of AIDS education to the circus repertoire. That helped them to become self-sustaining and secure funding. In March 2001 they performed their first AIDS-education show in the Awassa market. The Awassa city government donated land to the Debub Nigat, to provide a gymnasium and vocational training center for the children involved in the Circus, a transaction mediated by Aster, Sunnait, Bereket, and others. Dr. Hermann’s group raised US $40,000 to build a home for the Center. By March 2002 it was half built. Ato Girma Melesse was hired as Executive Director. The Debub Nigat Vocational Training and Circus Center was incorporated as an NGO supported by a collaboration of international donors who comprised the Board of Directors. Hunzinger, Schein, Aster Dabels and signed on for a three-year stint as donors.Upon returning to the States Schein formed the Awassa Children’s Project (ACP) with Jennifer Viets, Amanda Lichtenstein, Tom Jansson (artists associated with the Free Street program in Chicago; Fasika Alem; and long-time theater collaborator John Lefan. Monica and Alan Kimrey joined the Board and the ACP was incorporated in Illinois in 2002.
In 2003 Tesfaye Tekelu was appointed assistant bookkeeper of the Children’s Center, the first of the performers to land a job there. Under its new name, the Awassa Aids Education Circus was featured in the US State Department magazine and in American Theater Magazine. With the completion of its buildings in 2003, the Center began taking in new younger children, orphaned by AIDS, and to acquire houses in the town to lodge them. international board adopted a new policy: to feed, house, educatate and care for AIDS orphans.
2004 Debub Nigat makes video
ACP Board members Krishna LeFan, a childhood friend of David Schein, and Paul Chadha went to Awassa and, with video producer David Howard, made a ten-minute video of the HIV/Awareness Circus Theater. At this point Tesfaye was appointed Center accountant and leader of the Circus; Meshu Tamrat was appointed Director of the Awassa Aids Education theater; and John McKay, pursuing a Master’ degrees in International Studies at Brandeis, began to intern at the Children’s Center.2004 Circus leader Tesfaye Tekelu starts aikido training
Dr. Donald Levine became interested in the Awassa project through Carol Rosovsky, a friend of David Schein. On a visit to Ethiopia following an honorary doctorate from Addis Ababa University, Levine and his wife Ruth delivered art supplies sent by ACP and met with Awassa Children's Center Manager, Girma Melesse. Girma arranged to have Tesfaye accompany to tour in the south. During the tour Levine introduced Tesfaye to aikido, and was struck by how quickly Tesfaye picked up the art.2005 The Idea of Awassa Peace Dojo evolves
On Dr. Levine's recommendation, AE brought Tesfaye as a guest participant in an international aikido seminar held at Nicosia, Cyprus, in April 2005. Tesfaye trained so well there that he was promoted to the aikido rank of 6th kyu, conferred normally only after several months of regular training. Tesfaye returned from Cyprus with the idea of starting a peace dojo in Awassa.Tesfaye also found on return an escalating conflict between the management of the Children's Center project for orphans and the older members of the Debub Nigat Circus. The latter wanted ACP to help them defray college tuition costs once they graduated from high school. The conjunction of these issues laid the basis for what became the Awassa Youth Campus. To begin with, Ato Girma conceived the idea of separating the two functions, by keeping the Vocational Training Center for orphans under his management, and setting up a separate place to keep the Debub Nigat circus going. John McKay, increasingly dissatisfied with prevailing concepts of care for vulnerable children, began to promote the concept of a different kind of NGO, one that could provide an after-school haven for Awassa youth and which would house the circus. Tesfaye thought of adding to that place the home for the Awassa Peace Dojo as well. In October, Tesfaye, John, and Meshu climbed to a mountain retreat and sketched out plans for this new program. It would be called the Awassa Youth and Peace Campus. They secured an official stamp with that name, which was emblazoned on the sign that framed the official opening a few months later.
2006 Awassa Youth Campus (AYC) is created
Name change. On the advice of knowledgeable Ethiopians, the word 'peace' was dropped from the campus’s name and retained only in the name of the aikido dojo.Inauguration. February 6. A pot-pourri of gymnastics, music, dance, and aikido was offered to a large crowd of local residents and NGO officials. US Chargée d'affaires Vicki Huddleston offered good will remarks, then she and LEM-Ethiopia vice-president Mengesha Workeneh planted a Tree of Peace.
Bylaws. Early to mid-February. Newly elected president of ACP Paul Chadha, John McKay, and Tesfaye drafted bylaws. The pertinent government bureau rejected these bylaws, because they named John as director, whereas Ethiopian regulations required that such a post be given to an Ethiopian. Subsequently, John and Tesfaye rewrote the bylaws, naming Tesfaye as the Director. (Due to the accident that Levine was not present at the time, the bylaws neglected to mention Aiki Extensions, the other cofounder of the AYC.)
Program. March-December. The first international Aiki Corps volunteer, Mark Walsh, devoted three months to instituting an instructional program at the new Peace Dojo. In July the OneLove theater went on a ten-city tour, with shows and aiki demos at each stop. McKay and Tesfaye expanded the campus program.
2007-08 International support expands
The Japanese ambassador invited Peace Dojo aikidoka to demonstrate in a World Youth event he sponsored in May. OneLove Theater went on another ten-city tour. Volunteers from England, Spain, Australia, and the USA assisted with the campus art, music, and theater programs. Other AE Aiki Corps volunteers came as well, including a five-person troupe under Sensei David Weinstock, whose visit with Tesfaye to the Ministry of Education led to adopting a policy of requiring aikido instruction for high school seniors in the city. He also followed up on Mark Walsh's initiative of introducing Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to the dojo leadership. On a third visit to the campus in February 2008 Levine took along brother-in-law Jeffrey Klein, who was so taken by the project that he found an American sponsor to build Ethiopia's first outdoor basketball court.In July 2008 AE subsidized Tesfaye's attendance at TAB-Zurich summer camp for the second year in a row. AYC toured the United States for six weeks beginning in October, visiting more than half a dozen states, raising funds and making valuable connections. AE Advisor Daniel Weinstein offered a 5K grant to support efforts to reduce violence among youth. Conversations between the AE president and ACP Board members began to explore options for future. AE currently is taking steps to initiate an international support group for the Youth Campus and its Peace Dojo.
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