Surafel Eshetu statement (5th grade student at ECF) Danny Glover statement Kenenisa Bekele statement Berhane Adere statement NEWS 25 November 2004 On behalf of the Ethiopian Children’s Fund family I would like to welcome you to the ECF Village. My name is Surafel Eshetu. I am a fifth grade student. I am 13-years-old. I have been a student at the ECF Village since the beginning of the school. When I grow up I want to be a medical doctor. With ECF behind me, I believe I can achieve my dreams. I am an orphan – but I am fortunate. Thanks to the efforts of Anna Getaneh, the founder of ECF, and all the volunteers, including you, Mr. Danny Glover, I am getting my education free of charge in this large and beautiful school. The school provides us with uniforms and books. We have a clinic that we go to when we are sick. We drink the milk from our cows. The fields of ECF produce vegetables and Teff, the grain from which our national food injera is made. There are 51 orphans in our school. We may be orphans but we are fortunate. Through ECF’s Anti-AIDS Club we learn about the effects of this deadly disease. In our school, in our homes and in our neighborhoods, we hear about AIDS which leaves many children of our age without parents. We know how it feels to lose your parents. It hurts, a lot. For us, ECF has made things easier. We live with our grandparents, uncles, aunts, older brothers and sisters, and we also have the ECF family behind us. We are able to play, learn and love each other. We don’t have to worry that tomorrow we may not have food or won’t be able to pay our school fees. Today we are happy to have you, the media and Government officials with us. We ask you, the Government, UNICEF and NGOs, to live up to the promises you make to us so that all children, especially orphans, have the same type of chances as we do. Thank you very much for listening.