We celebrate #May24 by paying tribute to every #Eritrean family, and by renewing our promise to restore and reunite Eritrean families - to #heal Eritrea.
We pay tribute:
To the family of those who paid the ultimate on the days leading to and on the eve of #May24. They could smell it, see it and sense it, yet there was a price to be paid - one more time and your precious one came forward…
To the family of the tegadelti who got killed in the hands of their comrades just a few years into #May24 - sadly continuing the bloodshed we thought was behind us on #May24#ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To the family whose father, mother, sister, brother was snatched right after indep. & hence didn't even get the chance to enjoy that brief moment of relative freedom & liberty much of #Eritrea enjoyed; you suffered in loneliness for yrs to come #ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To the family who gave 5 and all, 4 and all, 3 and all, 2 and all, and 1 and all - we feel your pain as you witness the promises that your family paid for gets broken year after year…#ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To the family who was given a meager 5k allowance for the LIFE of its dearest..but was forced to pay 50K when the children of the one who paid the ultimate for EriIndependence looked for a better life away from #Eritrea and away from their families #ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To the family who is unable to take a photo of all its family members together and had to resort to stitching the photos of individual family members all over the world to create a semblance of normalcy and togetherness...#ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To the family who, in its wildest imagination, couldn’t have planned for its family members to gather from all over the world to have the wedding of its children in just about every country in East Africa, but #Eritrea. #ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To the family who took up 2, 3 extra jobs in foreign lands to contribute to the cause of #EriIndependence, yet you are denied the right to live, visit or even have your body buried in your beloved #Eritrea. #ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To all the children of Eritrean families, #Ma24 promised to bring bright future and opportunity to reach your full potential, but not only the promises were unfulfilled but worse, turned to unimaginable nightmare. #ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
Life of indefinite servitude became unbearable. You had to flee your beloved family and country, and go through unimaginable obstacles in search of normalcy that #May24 was supposed to bring. #ኣብልብናሰፈርኩም#WeSeeYou
To all Eritrean families!!
#May24 was won by Eritrean families for Eritrean families and will be reclaimed by and for Eritrean families.
We conclude our #May24 tribute to Eritrean families by a call to action as we relaunch our #EndHighSchoolInSawa campaign - in its 2nd year now.
This campaign is directly connected with the tribute and promise to restore and reunite Eritrean families because ...
....the destruction of Eritrean families begins when the regime snatches Eritrean children away from their families and conscripts them to indefinite servitude even before they finish their high school education.
Lidiya is a 21 years old prominent activist & organizer who has been passionately involved with her Eritrean community from a very young age.
Ever since she witnessed the daunting & overwhelming plight of Eritrean refugees in Libya, Lidiya got determined not to sit back & watch.
Instead, she picked up the slack left by the organizations which simply abandoned these refugees, and found a way to provide financial and moral support to these refugees and make meaningful contributions to help ease their suffering.
Today’s #Yiakl#SundaySpotlight goes out to Habtom Yohannes (@Kinzareb) in acknowledgment of his long-standing unwavering advocacy for Eritrean Prisoners of Conscience and his passion to support Eritreans with his expertise in journalism.
Habtom Yohannes is an Eritrean-Dutch human rights activist, a senior editor with extensive experience within the Dutch media, lecturer, advisor & moderator. He continuously raises the issues of #Eritrea|n prisoners & uses every opportunity/platform to demand that they get justice
As a passionate activist, he has been putting the violation of human rights in #Eritrea on the agenda of the Dutch parliament, the European Parliament, the African Union and the United Nations. @Europarl_EN@_AfricanUnion@UN
Today’s #Yiakl#SundaySpotlight goes out to the organizers of @RemEPOC in acknowledgment of their important initiative to help keep the memories of disappeared Eritreans alive until they get justice.
Remembering Eritrean Prisoners of Conscience @RemEPOC is a social media campaign that is dedicated to daily remembering at least one Eritrean Prisoner of Conscience and an accompanying daily narrative of the human rights situation of #Eritrea.
#Eritrea today is a country where its best daughters & sons, including its sheiks, priests, pastors, ministers, diplomats, civil servants, army leaders, teachers, conscripts, poets, newspaper editors, singers, merchants, veterans and faith communities are illegally disappeared.
Today’s #Yiakl#SundaySpotlight goes out to Tsedal Yohannes in acknowledgment of her perseverance, commitment and courage to advocate for #Eritrean prisoners of conscience.
Despite the emotional toll, Tsedal is a very determined woman who is oftentimes seen in the streets of London, Geneva, Brussels and other parts of the world campaigning for the rights of #Eritrea|n prisoners.
Today’s #Yiakl#SundaySpotlight goes out to Ahmed Raji in acknowledgment of his consistent work as a citizen journalist and his commitment to highlighting and archiving the stories of disappeared #Eritrean|s.
Ahmed as a citizen journalist and a strong advocate for #Eritrean prisoners of consciences is a frequent writer at @awate2 and archives disappeared Eritreans stories on his Facebook page - "Eritrea's Disappeared".
Ahmed started writing at @awate2 in 2003 while still living in Asmara, #Eritrea. In order to protect his identity, the Awate Team gave him the name “Events Monitor”.
Today’s #Yiakl#SundaySpotlight is dedicated to Eritrean activists and campaigners who have actively been addressing the very urgent issue of famine happening in #Eritrea.
This is an acknowledgment to the organizers of #EritreanHiddenFamine and #SaveDenkalia of their quick action in raising awareness to the famine brought by the Eritrean government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the government of Eritrea announced a lock down of many parts of the country due to COVID-19, reports of people starving and pleading families in the diaspora for help started surfacing. #EritreanHiddenFamine#SaveDankalia