Stories and Pathways

     Recently, Roni Akale, the Director-General of ENP enlightened the interns on all he has done to get to where he is today, in Israel, the home for the Ethiopian Israelis where they longed to live for 2500 years. Ron was born in a town near a City called Golda where he grew up in a Jewish family. His childhood was quite different than the average American or Israeli. For example, his school was a village where he would walk 34 kilometers both there and back everyday. When the school day was over and it was time for homework Roni had to depend on the sun for light. He then explained how he worked as a bookkeeper for 3 years. This was his life until his friend convinced him to go to Jerusalem.  At just 20 years old Roni began his trek to Israel. The travelers were unaware of how far away their village was from Sudan which is vital information considering getting to Israel from Ethiopia is done by going through Sudan. Even though this detail caused some panic, no...

  Recently, ENP gave all of the interns the fantastic opportunity to hear a Dental student, one of ENP’s scholars, a chance to share her outstanding story with us. She started off by giving us the basic information about her dentistry journey; such as where she goes to school, how long the program is, how she knew she wanted to pursue dentistry, bad experiences in her career, etc. The 26 year old goes to the University of Jerusalem and is in the middle of her 7 year program. She explained how both medicine students and dentistry students have to go through 3 years of medicine school, 3 years in a clinic and one year shadowing a doctor in the field of desire. Orly shared how she always knew she wanted to help people, but didn’t know how she wanted to pursue this. When the art of dentistry got introduced to her she fell in love with it. Her father had diabetes, which caused her to study the facts related to diabetes and the mouth and soon found herself very interested in dentistry ...

  A few days ago I had the opportunity to witness one of the most amazing things ENP has to offer. Myself and a few other interns went to the airport to send off two boys who will be returning to summer camp in America. Annually, ENP sends a set number of Ethiopian students to summer camp in America where they get to meet new people, enhance their English skills, and have a great summer in a new setting. Usually new students are selected to attend every year, but Ajo and Ishai had such a great time last year that they fought their way to returning this year.  When we arrived at the airport we were accompanied by Ajo and his mother, Ishai, his brother and his mother. Grace, the Director of International Relations, gifted the boys with a few essentials. She first gave them an ENP shirt and then gave them their own journals so that they could document their amazing journeys and look back on their fun times.  While Ajo and Ishai were waiting in the long line to check thei...