The Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW) – Press release

In appreciation of Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) for the Support Given to The Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW) in 2013

The Center for the Rights of Ethiopian Women (CREW) sends its well wishes for a happy and peaceful new year to all members of our community. We are grateful to individuals and organizations that have supported us in 2013. We would like to extend our special thanks to the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA ) for the support it gave our organization in 2013. Following are the generous support of ESFNA:

1. ESFNA donated $1,600 (one thousand six hundred dollars) to support our second annual conference of Ethiopian women in the Diaspora that was held in March 2013. The money went to pay for the two-day conference hall rented at the Marriott hotel in Washington, DC.
2. We collaborated with ESFNA in celebrating its 30^th anniversary in July 2013.  We appreciate ESFNA for making “Celebrating Ethiopian Women” its theme for its 30^thanniversary. ESFNA has provided CREW the following during its July festival:
   • Allowed CREW to share a tent with two Ethiopian-based organizations who are working on women’s issues. That opportunity allowed us to network with those organizations..  As a result, we have established a working relation with one of the organizations.
   • CREW was allowed the use of the ball room at the Sheraton hotel, the official hotel for ESFNA for the July festival. One of the activities we had at the ball room was a fund raising event that was held on July 4th to support our work on Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle Eastern countries. The second activity was a workshop on conflict resolutions that was held on July 6^th.
   • ESFNA promised to give us one dollar from each ticket sold at the opening day. Accordingly, ESFNA gave us $4,500 (four thousand five hundred dollars). From this money, we sent $3,175 dollars (60,000 Ethiopian birr) to Integrated Family Services Organization (IFSO) to start a pilot project to resettle four Ethiopian domestic workers who return to Ethiopia from the Middle East countries. IFSO will provide them shelter, counseling and medical services for three months. It will provide them job training and help them obtain jobs. At the end of the three months period, each woman will receive a one-time grant of 4,000 Eth birr to help them resettle.

The remaining $1, 425 (from the $4,500 given to us by ESFNA) is allocated toward financing the upcoming third International conference of Ethiopian women in the Diaspora that will be held on March 8^th 2014. The theme of the conference will be  “Migration of Ethiopian women: Contemporary Issues.”

3. In addition, ESFNA helped in introducing CREW to a larger Ethiopian community. We were given a platform at the Ethiopian Day gathering to introduce CREW and give exposure about our projects on Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle Eastern countries.

We would like to thank ESFNA and members of our community who have supported us in our work in 2013. We hope your support and collaboration will continue in the New Year. CREW is committed to promoting the rights of Ethiopian women worldwide. Our third annual conference will focus on the migration of Ethiopian women and will highlight the plight of Ethiopian domestic workers in the Middle East as we did in our 2012 and 2013 conferences.

We wish you all a happy and productive New Year.