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Roni's Story

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     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 matter how long th
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Orly’s Story

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  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 . Sh
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Sending Ajo and Ishai off to America

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  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 their bags in, the
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Learning what it means to be an Ethiopian-Israeli

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  June 20th - Natanel’s Story On Thursday, June 20th, the other interns and I had the privilege of talking to Natanel, an Ethiopian-Israeli medical student who is a part of the ENP community. Natanel told us about his family’s journey from Ethiopia to Israel as well as his personal experience growing up in Israel. Not only was it eye-opening to hear directly from Natanel about his story, but to see how ENP has made a significant impact on his career and success. Natanel’s family came to Israel in 1984, walking by foot from Ethiopia, through Sudan, to Jerusalem. The journey Natanel’s parents endured took 3 to 4 weeks to complete. Growing up, Natanel would always go with his mom to the doctor’s office to translate for her. Only speaking Amharic, his mom had great difficulty navigating medical appointments, so Natanel would relay information between his mom and the doctors for years. This routine inspired Natanel to go to medical school, as he fell in love with the medical world actin
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June 20- Collaboration Day/Speaker

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On Thursday, June 20th we had the fantastic opportunity to hear Netanel, a current medical scholar at ENP and student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem Israel, speak about his life experiences through the hardships life had to offer him. He began by unpacking his family history when his parents came to Israel after traveling by foot in the desert for 3-4 weeks.      Following his parents' story is his story. He shares with us how he grew up in Be’er Sheva where he would tag along with his mother to her workplace, a doctor's office. Netanel’s role was a translator for his mothers patients because she spoke Hamrat, the national language of Ethiopia and did not speak Hebrew. All of his experience at such a young age prompted him to follow his mothers footsteps. This was not all he shared about his childhood. He expressed that his mother was diabetic while simultaneously being pregnant with twins. This created a lot of stress on young Netanel. Following this stress, a few years l
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June 16: SPACE Program

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 June 16: SPACE Program  The day that the whole ENP office has been preparing for has finally come, SPACE program day. Once we arrived at our destination in Jerusalem, we began preparing for what’s to come. The first task was to travel around the building and ask the 9th and 10th grade students what their names were to put on a name tag. This way everyone is more familiar with each other and there is no room to forget names. During this time, a delicious meal was provided. From schnitzel to pita and humus the menu was endless!  As the meal came to a close it was time to transition into the activities me and my fellow interns planned to do with the Ethiopian adolescence to allow us to build a bond with the students as well as put smiles on their faces. While playing different games such as Names and Dance Moves, Finding Commonalities, The Wind Blows, Indian Chief, Two Truths and a Lie and Simon Says the students found themselves to be having a good time. They were getting carried away
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June 6: First Day/ Introductions

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          Hello! My name is Shari Spiegel and I am a rising junior at The Ohio State University majoring in Primary Education. I grew up in a small suburb called Beachwood in Cleveland Ohio. I am currently on a program called Onward where I chose to intern at the Ethiopian National Project with hopes to become more educated and build my work experience. I am so excited to be able to share my journey at ENP with everyone! June 6: First Day/ Introductions  Between figuring out public transportation, the anxiety of meeting coworkers, and figuring out the work environment, the first day of a new job/internship is very nerve racking. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. I immediately noticed the pleasant atmosphere when I had a meeting with the Director of International Relations where we spoke about expectations and my focus areas. From this conversation we decided I will be initiating a project called “Pen Pals” where Ethiopian students will be comm
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