The challenges that face Ethiopians in New Zealand

Ethiopians living in New Zealand face a number of challenges.  These will be discussed at a community meeting to be held at 474 Great North Road, Auckland. on November 4.

The guest speaker will be Mr Abebe Gellaw, an international journalist who is executive director of Ethiopian Satellite Television and Radio (ESAT TV) and will be available for interview until November 8. Please contact Nestanet Kassa  on 0278054332 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Gellaw works at Stanford University where, in 2008-09, he was the John S. Knight Fellow for Professional Journalists and Yahoo International Fellow. He is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and visiting scholar at the Centre on Democracy Development and Rule of Law. He is working on a book project, Ethiopia under Meles: Why the transition from military rule to democracy failed.

He began his career in journalism in 1993 as a freelance writer focusing on human rights and political issues. He worked for various print and online publications including the Ethiopian Herald, the only English daily in the country. Gellaw is also a founding editor of Addisvoice.com, a bilingual online journal focusing on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa

The meeting will present a perspective on Ethiopia different from how it is often perceived, which is of a booming economy and adventure tourism.

 For example, some Ethiopians who come to New Zealand as refugees are from the same tribe as the ruling party, (the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF)) and work as undercover spies, keeping tabs on Ethiopians in this country.The meeting will also look at social media and telecommunications, which are prohibited in the country. This meeting will bring Ethiopian New Zealanders’ together to learn about how to get information to friends back home, about alternative social media, and about what is happening in the country. This is important because there is no independent media there.

For more information please contact:

Nestanet Kassa

0278054332

or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.