So some special friends are in town this week.
When I visited the Maru-Chebot First Cycle Elementary School last November, I was really just tagging along with a group of 10 American environmental activists from the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club. Two friends and leaders in population-health-environment field, Katie Mogelgaard and Sarah Fairchild, had arranged a dynamic visit to Ethiopia for them to see first hand the links between severe environmental, demographic, and health challenges.
Katie and Sarah were kind enough to let me tag along before we all went to Addis Ababa for a conference entitled “Population, Health, and Environment: Integrated Development for East Africa.” Both the visit to Berga and then the conference proved to be fascinating. I’ve told you a lot about the Berga site. The conference was an energizing three days with participants sharing insights from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, DRC, and then places farther afield from Madagascar and the Philippines. The conference had a host of sponsors but I should single out friends at the Population Reference Bureau and LEM, the Ethiopian NGO that hosted the meeting.
But back to this week – the Audubon and Sierra group is back in Washington along with a similar group who traveled to the Philippines this past March. I missed joining them for dinner tonight, but I look forward to catching up with them tomorrow to share stories and more importantly, discuss how we are all working to support that community in need we visited together that sunny November day in Ethiopia.
So some special friends are in town this week. 
1 comment:
Quick point of explanation about the picture. The kids were fascinated to see themselves on the back of the digital camera.
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