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mani Tate, STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 09/01/2006 12:58:08 AM PDT
Dance is their medium, but the 10 young African girls performing as the Mesgana Dancers of Ethiopia in two Inland Valley programs are really promoting education and international peace.
The girls, ages 7 to 12, will perform traditional dances from five regions of Ethiopia at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the David Dreier Hall of the Central Park Facilty, 11200 Baseline Road in Rancho Cucamonga. They are trained master dancer Mesgane Abyot of the Ethiopian National Dance Theater. All the girls are members of the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund, the nonprofit organization also licensed as a legal international nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia. Proceeds of the Rancho Cucamonga performance will benefit COEEF which sponsors the tuition, books, supplies and uniforms for the Ethiopian girls to attend school in their homeland.
The tax-deductible donation to the Wednesday concert is $10 for adults, $5 for children age 12 and younger and $25 per family.
The Mesgana Dancers will also perform at Fairplex in Pomona on Sept. 8, the opening day of the 84th anniversary of the Los Angeles County Fair. The girls will dance from 2:40 to 3:10 p.m. on the community stage in building 4.
The Pomona performance is included in the general admission ticket to the fair.
Mesgana means "gratitude" or "thankfulness" in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. It also speaks to the emotional response of the 10 girls selected for the troupe and 650 female classmates from families with extremely limited finances. These girls could not attend school without the generosity of American and Canadian sponsors of the Children of Ethiopian Education Fund, said Rene Webb of Claremont.
Webb, Myra Lau of Pomona and Becky Ewing of Upland learned about the dance troupe and children's fund when Helen Whitehead of Upland and a COEEF representative appealed to members of the Pomona-Claremont chapter of Soroptimist International for help with sponsorships. The three Soroptimists and others in the Inland Valley immediately agreed to get involved as sponsors.
Webb's husband, Reggie, and A-Disney executive Bob Mendez arranged for the girls and their chaperones to go to Disneyland during their Southern California visit. Disney and Toyota Corp. will provide transportation, admission, food and special tours of Disneyland in Anaheim.
"It's absolutely imperative for us to remember to give back because we are so blessed," Webb said. "I personally feel I must help other children as I was helped as a child. I talk to young people, mainly girls, because I feel when they have self-esteem and education, they pass it on and end the cycle of poverty for their families." "Girls who have self-esteem and education grow up to be mothers and responsible women who raise their daughters with the same values," she added. "And those daughters in turn raised granddaughters with this. This positively impacts the world."
Norm Perdue of Salt Lake City, an official NBA photographer for nearly two decades, and his wife Ruthann established the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund following a humanitarian mission to Ethiopia in 2001. While visiting the small village of Kersa Elala, the Perdues discovered the inequity of education for and treatment of girls in Africa.
"Most girls drop out of school after seventh grade," Norm Perdue pointed out in a COEEF brochure. "They are then expected to tend to chores, siblings and other domestic duties. Without proper education, many become sexually active and a high percentage contract HIV/AIDS. If they remain in school and at least graduate from 12th grade, their prospects for a happier future increase and studies show that they are more likely to improve the lives of their own children than comparably educated boys."
The Perdues decided to sponsor a 12-year-old girl at the Ethiopian Adventist College and School in Kuyera after learning the girl's grandmother performed manual labor at the school to pay for the girl's education. When they returned to the United States, they enlisted the help of friends to also sponsor Ethiopian girls' education. That initial help gradually grew and evolved into the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund.
Webb said the organization fosters education as a way to end poverty and create hope. Ethipia has the fourth highest number of out-of-school girls in the world, with only girls in India, Pakistan and Nigeria more negatively impacted lack of education and access to resources, she noted. "Perhaps we can't resolve all the problems African girls face, but we can help one girl at a time so these girls can help their future families," Webb said.
The Mesgana Dancers local performances are part of a fund-raising tour to California, Utah and Washington, D.C. The girls and their chaperones will also sell Ethiopian arts, crafts and textiles at each venue. Additional information on sponsorships and donations to the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund may be obtained on the group's Web site, www.coeef.org, or e-mailing Perdue at nperdue8 Imani Tate can be reached by phone at (909) 483-8544.
Source: http://www.dailybulletin.com/search/ci_4266445
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