Swedish City Holds Successful Public Awareness Seminar About Eritrea
2015-10-23 20:50:10 Written by By EPDP Information Office Published in EPDP News Read 2596 times-
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In the morning hours of 23 October, 2015, social workers, language instructors for refugees, political figures and members of the public in the Swedish City of Gutenberg had the rare occasion of being fully briefed on the plight of Eritrean refugees and on what has been going on in that country for the past several years before the people forced to take risky escapes and dangerous trips to the unknown.
Entitled "Eritrea in Our Hearts", the seminar was organized by the social affairs department of the city administration of Gutenberg. Two Eritrean panelists and two young refugees were at hand to tell the distressing Eritrean story.
Mr. Rezene Tesfazion, former member of the Swedish Parliament and currently Executive Committee member in the Eritrean People's Democratic Party (EPDP), spoke in great length about what is happening in the political, social, economic and military spheres in Eritrea and why Eritrea without being currently at war has a frightening rate of refugees comparable to that of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The presentation in Swedish by Mr. Rezene Tesfazion was followed by accounts given by two young Eritrean refugees who experienced the horrors of escape and the dangers faced on the way until those who survive reach a safer place.
Ms Meron Estefanos, an Eritrean journalist and human rights activist, was the next speaker who spoke on what she went through under the repressive regime in Eritrea and the saddening stories of Eritrean refugees she has been covering in the past several years. Her presentation was accompanied by pictures and a short film on human trafficking of Eritreans.
Eritreans including Mr. Zehaie Keleta, a Gutenberg resident, were among those who helped make this superb awareness seminar and public diplomacy a big success.
