Essence of DOPE
How We Can Succeed as a Community
No one can save the community alone. We have to work in collaboration to lift up our communities.
by Mahlet Endale. Posted: Saturday, July 24, 2010
Mahelt Endale, Author
On Thursday July 15, 2010 Brown Condor posted this piece by Meeraf Taddesse titled “The Price of Celebrity, Forgetting Your Own?” In the article she discusses how many successful people in our community do not seem to reach back to the community to bring others to success. She also points out how especially high profile Habesha do not appear to mentor and guide others into non-traditional Habesha professions such as sports, arts, and fashion. I too used to think that there weren’t that many of us entering non-traditional fields until I began a project with my sister and I became exposed to how many of us are working incognito in television, movies, arts, music, and more. I wondered like Ms. Taddesse why these people did not make more noise and make opportunities known to those in the community who might be interested in similar fields. Part due to a different project I was working on and part out of sheer curiosity I sent out a list of questions to people in the community regarding what it’s like to help their people. I sought out those individuals who have helped people in the community, whether in the past or currently. I mainly wanted to know what kept people – especially succesful people – from volunteering to help the community. The bottom line that I heard from the majority of the group was that helping needs to be an organized effort in order to reach as many people as possible and, as several people put it, we are a difficult group of people to organize. According to those with experience here are some of the reasons why it’s hard to help our community (I use my experiences to highlight people’s points rather than theirs since I promised responders anonymity):
Every One Is An Expert Even In Areas They Have No Training In
I am a licensed psychologist with 10 years of training under my belt. I am still a young professional with much to learn, but I at least have the basics down…or else I would not have been awarded my degrees or my license to practice. Imagine my surprise, amusement, and then irritation when a friend tried to argue with me about the etiology of schizophrenia. Might I add that my friend has no professional training in mental health or illness. According to my friend – schizophrenia (a disorder that involves hallucinations and/or delusions) comes from people not being nice enough to the sufferer. My friend insisted that if a schizophrenic patient had one person in his or her life that treated the patient with love and dignity the patient would be healed. Well, this theory is missing from the 100+ years of psychiatric and psychological research. I would like to think if healing someone with such a serious disease was as simple as that then the disease should be obsolete by now. No matter what I said my friend remained unmoved that he was right and years of psychological study were wrong. I finally gave up. This scenario, people insisting they know something about an area they have little to no experience in, plays itself out regularly in our community. This becomes problematic when it happens in an organization because it causes splintering of services and volunteers. Even worse – it at times can lead to volunteers hurting those they are trying to help rather than helping them. In order to improve this, those volunteering to help our community need recognize people with expertise in different areas and they need to let them lead in that particular area. If you are volunteering outside your area of expertise, then it’s important to defer to those with experience and training.
People Are Shy To Take On Leadership Roles
Another problem with organizing our community is that it is difficult to convince those trained professionals who do know what they are talking about to take on leadership positions in community organizations. The problem is that our community is slow to trust and quick to judge. Therefore progress is slower than it needs to be and in the mean time those in leadership have to put up with lots of judgments and criticisms. Over the past 3 years I have written monthly articles for Dinq magazine on basic mental health and wellbeing. In that time frame I have been approached by many in the community who have tips on how I could do this better:
“Why do you write your articles in English? Why not write it in Amharic?”
“Because I do not read or write in Amharic. Would you like to help me by translating?”
“Well, I am very busy but I’m sure someone can help you! You know, most people do not understand what you say so you should write it in Amharic.”
Or
“Why do you write about such depressing things?”
“Well, mental health problems like depression are depressing things by nature, but I write about how to overcome it or help someone else overcome it.”
“Yeah, but no one wants to hear about sad things. You should write about happy things.”
The funny thing is, when I ask them to get involved to make the work better the answer is usually no. So in the meantime I can only do what I can with the limited resources I have while still getting feedback on how I’m not doing a good enough job. There were times I felt I was wasting my time or that no one benefitted from my efforts, but I realized that I was giving more weight to those who approached me with criticisms versus those who approached me to discuss how much they appreciate the information in the articles. I also had to take the criticism for what it was – attempts to help me do better. I had to look beyond the delivery and be open to the message (I found an Amharic translator who helped for some time and I included lighter pieces in between the heavier pieces I wrote.) I struggle off and on with this and I only write a monthly article for a magazine. I cannot imagine the experience of someone who takes on a prominent leadership role in a community organization. It is not always easy to roll with the punches and for someone who is sensitive or who is not supported by those in the organization there may come a time when it becomes too much. Unfortunately, an organization with lots of leadership turnover is just not going to be as succesful. We need to identify people who have good leadership skills combined with expertise, put them in leadership roles, then nurture and take care of them so they can do what they are good at.
Volunteer Work is One Step Forward and Two Steps Back
Everyone wants to be there when your organization is doing well, but people are not quick to volunteer when you are just starting with a new project or if your organization falters. It is hard to find people who are willing to stick with a project during the harder times. Often, people do not realize that projects could turn out to be more long term than they anticipated. They get frustrated when a project is not quick to succeed. I remember a friend telling me of the frustrations he experienced with this. He is an active member of a community church where he and a group of young people, college students and young graduates, organized themselves to provide after school tutoring to K-12 church attendees at no cost. All the parents had to do was find a way to bring their kids to the church after school and weekends. They practically had no utilization even after calling parents and begging them to bring the kids over. After a period of this the program was disbanded. The volunteers left feeling frustrated and as if they wasted a lot of their time, energy, and money.
People Want To Reinvent The Wheel
How Many Queen of Sheba, Dukem, or Red Nile restaurants are there in the U.S.? If you haven’t noticed, when people in the community see one person with a great idea in no time there are 5 more people trying to do the same thing while claiming their version is better. This is the same with community organization events. That K-12 tutoring program I mentioned? I know of at least one other church, one friend, and a young professionals organization that also wanted to do it – all in the same city. How much more effective would this have been if all these people pooled their ideas, resources, and community contacts to set up one tutoring program and then nurtured it into fruition rather than trying to compete with one another.
What’s Your Point
Some of you may be asking “How did Mahlet go from succesful people reaching back to their community to why community organizations don’t function well.” Here it is: many non-Habesha celebrities are able to help their communities because there are existing community organizations that they can tap their time, money, or celebrity image into. As Teddy Fikre has often said – no one can save the community alone. We have to work in collaboration to lift up our communities. In order to help successful Diaspora members reach back to our community – our community has to be ready with its hands raised for someone who is reaching back. We have to establish effective community programs that these succesful people can then tap into. I imagine many of these Habesha celebrities are not sitting there doing nothing. They may be helping one person at a time – a cousin here, a friend there. Compare that type of service Liya Kebede is doing with the existing Fistula Foundation in Ethiopia. We commoners need to have succesful functional organizations ready so people like Liya can maximize their resources through us.
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How many of us have missed another calling because of the pressure we put on ourselves to conform to the definition of success composed by our community. by Liya Endale. Posted: Thursday, July 1, 2010 Every once in a while, I come across a submission that raises the bumps on my arms as my mind…
about 1 year ago
Hello, Mahlet!
I am happy to see your article and it was absolutey a great read! I agree with you, there are many obstacles to overcome within the community. You have clearly highlighted some of the major ones. While they are a challenge to overcome, I do believe that when anyone attemps to do something of great good, a great amount of negativity may combat their good intentions. Think back to many of your greatest accomplishments. I am quite sure that you have had many challenges stand in your way. Yet, you were able to overcome them to become the accomplished person that you are today! There may have been prejudice or a family member telling you that entering this profession was a waste of time. Despite such conflicts, you stood by your convictions.
Liya Endale is one of the few exceptions to my comments. But, one of the keys to her success in her efforts is that she has access to financial support, whether via her own finances or through the support of other wealthy philanthropists, and her willingness to put for the time and effort to make her vision into a reality. Your friends, while well-intended and very inspired to accomplish a noble goal, may not have had the resources and influences on our community that a Liya Endale would have. So, their fight to assist their immediate community would have been a very steep uphill battle. They would have had to focus on the tasks involved, while also focusing on their own personal struggles of daily life, which could have been related to pursuing advanced degrees, raising a family, etc. The point is that maintaining such goals, while you are still in the middle of a “normal” everyday-life routine would be an exception to the celebrities that I had in mind (obviously, how this comment relates to your remarks could depend on the status of your unknown sources).
For instance, I mentioned Amsale the dress designer. She usually sells her creations in the ballpark of about $10,000 or higher (keep in mind that $10,000 would most probably be in the lower end tier of her fashion creations. She was featured on Oprah, just as Liya Endale and fits many celebrities on a regular basis. Her status, business, and label is concretely ingrained in the industry as being a premier dressmaker. She is the type of person that I am mainly referring to. It would take nothing for her, in contrast to regular folk like us, set up a non-profit organization and speak to a group of students once every six months, at the very least.
Trust me, as her success would follow within the community, others would clamor to get their child in her programs. Success, within these type of ventures, comes in incrimental success. If an unknown such as Hirut Gedlu couldl be recognized by the BBC, anyone can make an impact. Yohannes Gebregeorgis, a former librarian in the US, went to Ethiopia and made a huge impact because he had a vision and saw it through. He was even honored by CNN’s Top 10 Heroes in 2008. Many, who knew him in his prior profession, may have walked by him every day and looked at him as a regular Joe, but HE DID IT! Others can, too!
This is not something that everyone will be able to accomplish. After all, we can’t all become president of the US, but we can try. That is my point. As far as the community, you may know that there are many close-minded people that may shun the idea of sending there kids to an after-school program. That is true. But, all it takes is one child to start. If you prove success with that one child, others will follow (just as your comment about the trend in the establishment in Habesha businesses demonstrates), even if that child is a cousin, sister or brother. I have seen it happen. It just takes time, for those that are able to remain steady and stay on the course.
about 1 year ago
Mahlet endale, I congragulate You for Your achievement. That is also true that no one can save the community alone.
But You have forgotten one thing. we don’t have a community,but we have groups. Fragmented groups. We are all lost. Our thinking is based on our masters. When we have papres,We brag when we don’t have, We shrink.
There is nothing we believe we have our own. Everything is just copy.
Even what You call psychology is a mind game, It is a very limited direction and also, it is the most manipulated field for personal greed.
If You are talking about You and Your achievement, that is good for You.
Other than that Your article has so much flaws.
You didn’t well undrstand our problems and You can’t get the solutions.
Good Luck
about 1 year ago
This was an excellent article that outlines step by step exactly what is wrong with our community. We are all part of the problem and until we ourselves become what we want others to be and do the work we suggest others should do, we will continue to be in the limbo chaotic state we seem to find ourselves in as a community. The challenge to find solutions to all the problems you brilliantly outlined is one that we all must bear and address if we genuinely want solution to our common ever growing problems. Great job Mahlet!!!
about 1 year ago
you meant to say Liya kebede I suppose…not Liya Endale
about 1 year ago
Hi Meeraf – glad to have you in on this dialogue, especially since you generated the topic. The people who generated this list were definitely average joes trying to maintain their own life and home while giving extra to the community so they definitely were not in the same shoes as Liya Kebede (the model) or Amsale (the designer.) However – the points they make would apply to “stars” like Kebede or Amsale as well. You mentioned how Amsale could start a non-profit, but that in of itself is a full time job. In order for it to be succesful it would need a full time staff of organizers, website maintainers, finance people to handle money, and on and on. It’s rare for one person to single handedly run a non-profit and have it make large scale impact. Plus – it takes expertise in non-profit (there is even a graduate degree you can get in this) to be able to run the organization succesfully. When I think of stars giving back I imagine Amsale finding an existing non-profit that already has a track record of good business sense and then supporting them financially and/or lending her image to the organization to have more people be aware of it. Does that make sense? I am not as familiar with the details of how Hirut Gedlu and Yonannes Gebregeorgis make their work so succesful and recognizable, but again I imagine they are not managing this single handedly (if you have more information on this please share!). Like you said, everyone can’t be president, but when we work together there is so much that can be accomplished!
Hello to you as well Terefe Feyssa,
Thank you for your congratulations. With out the support of friends and family I would not be where I am. You are absolutely right – we have fragmented groups which makes our attempts to help ourselves more difficult. It’s interesting to hear you say there is nothing that we have as our own – I think there is such richness to our cultures, that we have so much to share. In fact, when helping our own people it is that much more important to work through things that are within our culture rather than apply another culture’s ways upon us. If everything is a copy – what do you think is the best way to generate our own original thoughts and ways of helping?
I am curious about your views on psychology. My experience has been different than what you describe. Could you help me understand your views on this?
As for the list generated: this is the aggregated answers of about a dozen or so people (most more traditional than myself) on their struggles trying to help their people. So no, these are not points I created. In order to protect their privacy I just illustrated their points by giving examples of how I have personally seen their points playing out.
You may be right – I may not understand the problems. But if we are going to fix existing problems maybe someone who does understand them should speak out. If no one does how do the problems get fixed?
about 1 year ago
Hey Mahlet,
great article Mahlet but at the end of the day it comes down to the same old problem of our culture. Here is one thing that wasn’t mentioned on your article that I think is a huge problem for people trying to give back but have a hard time going through the dreadful process. Most of the times the people doing the organization are older people or church going people who expect you to act or conduct yourself a certain way that becomes very hard for a lot of us to relate to and tend to avoid it all together. The other thing I think you should look at is the people who are not on the celebrity status but have something to give. (i.e. Mahlet Endale, I can see you being a great mentor to some kid that needs guidance in just life or advice in this world that they might not get from their parents b/c of cultural differences or issues of parents not willing to adopt to the American culture even if they have been here for 20+ years…..SMH. I think that is what is important. I think it should start in a smaller scale of Big Brother, Big Sister kind of organization for Ethiopian/Eriterian brothers and sisters and go from there. Even after saying all this maybe there is an organization that does that out there already that I don’t know about, which is very likely….:-)
BTW……..This was a very well written article and one of the best articles I have read about the issues we are facing in our communities when it comes to give back to our own.
@Terefe Feyssa…………..First, I’m having a hard time understanding why you didn’t feel like Mahlet didn’t understand our community’s issues and her article had flaws. Just a little advise here when you make a comment like that you have to support it with some facts or point out what you are talking about. Secondly, your comment about Psychology being a mind game was pretty elementary without any backing as well. Psychology is the scientific study of human or other animal mental functions and behaviors which is definitely mental. I’m not a Psychologist but I have a lot of respect for a profession that deals with human mental behavior even if you think it is some sort of evil empire……..SMH. BTW……it is not the most manipulated field for personal greed, C’mone do you really believe that it is not even in the top 10….lol. I”m not trying to get on you but I think you should have read your comments a few times before posting it and maybe you would have noticed how premature it looked/sounded…..thats just IMO.
about 1 year ago
Dr. Endale, I want to thank you for bringing such issues to light. It will help people that want to make a difference in the community knowledgeable about things that they might face so that they can address it better. We have so much to offer, rich culture and amazing people and YES, we can be hard to work with but nothing in this life worth having is easy to attain. Personally, there is nothing like giving back to the community at the same time I do understand the frustration of failure especially when it is not expected. I have over looked at many of positive things I was doing and instead looked at the negative when I was trying to put things together. Looking back, what I have learned from my experience is to be patient and understanding. The end result might be long to come but worth while. I realized that when organizing an event or an organization it is best to have many people skilled and dedicated at running the organization so that one person does not take all of the work load. Also I think it would be nice to have a section in Dinq, if not present, about the community service people are doing that way if there are more than one organization doing the same thing they can collaborate or at least they will know about each other. We have many strong, smart, and educated people. Please, do not get discourage because of a couple negative thoughts. If we do not help our own community, who is going to do it?
about 1 year ago
Mahlet:
You have brought a crucial point here to be focused on? The question “WHY the highly figured and/or as a matter fact most professionals people don’t give back or share their experience to the Community?” can be breaking down into few but crucial points.
In my point of view, the way we have been raised has some factors in who we are today. In most cases, whoever got a chance to go to school in Ethiopia hardly been taught to be independent thinker. What that means is, students were not encouraged to think outside the box. You are always expected to act in a certain way and your thinking or ideological thoughts are not supported by the school or school administers. The flow of discussion and expressing your idea within the classroom or even your household never been seen as a wisdom except few places and few families and yet the sad part is there is no progress on that. For that reason, most of us grew up with resisting new idea and/or changes and afraid to share our successes with others.
How many Ethiopians in Ethiopia do we know in our life that they have had mentors when they were in high school and even colleges and Universities? To my knowledge NONE. For me, that reflects two possible things:
• Either the culture of taking someone under your wing has never been seen as a positive thing in the society. OR
• The idea of coaching and mentoring has never been developed in the mind of many adult Ethiopians who are above 50-55 years old presently.
Both aforementioned possibilities need to have its own study but from what I have read and heard from people that age group. It was a time where independent thinking was condemned. And people were more focused on what has been going through the nation to rescue Ethiopia from feudal power and made themselves and their family free and tried to promote independent thinking with a dream of better future that has been stayed as a dream since then…
The war on the northern side, the University Riot on Haile Sellasie and the coup d’état on the kingdom to change into communism (which was a total disaster in my point of view) with pure power to the government has caused a huge damage in Ethiopian society, on possible growth in Ethiopia and made many to be flee away from persecution and red terror of Durg regime.
Even after all those years passed and the new era came in early 90s, where most of my age mates were in elementary school, the idea of expressing yourself has never been ease by your teachers, school administers and communities. I remember if you have a different point of view in certain things you were considered weird or spoiled or been asked to bring your parents to the school. I can share on incidents that happened to me when I was in high school to relate with the story…
I was not exceptionally smart and/or dull at that time… however, I loved Math to the most out of my all subjects since 3rd grade. I remember, it was 11th grade geometry class and we were working on proofs on Area Formula on Trapeziums, Circles and triangles. Since I have been working on that for few days I came up with a different way of deriving Trapezium’s Area Formula and before class started, I showed it some of my friends with the derivation I cam up with and we agreed to show my teacher and the response I got was, “Danny, that is not a right way of deriving the area formula to Trapeziums.”
And I said “ende Teacher, I am dead sure we can come to the same answer I know I have worked in detail on this…” and the teacher said “Danny I have told you that is not what I expect from you! GO AND LOOK YOUR BOOK.”
I felt so down for the fact that I was not even be encouraged for trying different idea at the moment. Gladly, I have shown that to my dad and I had a kiss on my forehead and tap on my shoulder with a best encouraging word a son can get “Gobez Liji” that same night.
That’s one of the main reason many Ethiopians have hard time in explaining their thoughts in open manner because they hardly ever given a chance to explain what’s in their mind and elaborate on their idea.
What I am trying to show you here is, even our teachers are expecting us to stick only what’s on the book and be a book smart. And let us follow others while we can be a leader and let others follow us by example. That same reason can also be applied to why we copy business ideas from one another… It is so funny that if Mr. X opens “Wefcho Bet” Mrs Y has to do same thing. If Mrs. Z opens an internet café Ms. U has to open an internet café too.
This is a disease by itself but can be changed by building entrepreneurship thinking by inviting some of successful business owners and professionals to the Universities and colleges and even to elementary schools to share their idea to the youth group and show them there are many ways you can be successful if you work hard and think outside the box too. I remember Unity College has started that about 10-11 years ago and I don’t know if they still have it. But it was a great idea. I have attended a speech by Jamica Shoe owner in Addis which was very moving and encouraging to listen to such people’s speech.
I don’t want to go out from your topics so, to conclude my small pieces of thinking about your topic. Culture, thinking inside the box and lack of entrepreneurship has many factors as to why many professionals don’t reach out to their communities. But it can be started from us and impact many.
Cher Yegtemen!
about 1 year ago
Mahlet
Very informative article. All interviewed made solid points. As a community organizer of 10 years, I understand and relate to each of the points that were made. Most successful people are willing to give back, but as stated earlier, it must be through a structured organization. Addressing the real issues of the community is like peeling an onion. Layers upon layers of issues and as we get closer to the core, it waters the eyes. No one person is island. It really takes a village or a few dedicated people not to “SAVE” the community but to assist and identify leaders within to carry the torch with external support. As the first interview stated, the professionals must step into their rightful rolls, be it on the front line or with solid advice from the back.
I call it the 3 A’s. The Activist: (trusted figure on the ground that has the trust and heart of the community), The Athlete: (A mere symbol of the financial funding needed to suppor the activist on the ground, and/or the figure that will attract the community) The Academicia: (The educator that montiors the data and colobrate with the acitivist to put the theory to application). With these three symbols presents, a community project can blossom with success. It is extremely difficult to get all three to agree on something, moreover, in the same space. They usually walk in very different circles. This leaves one person to try and fill all three shoes, and eventually burn out.
Life
about 1 year ago
Thank you Mahlet for sharing this article and creating this dialogue.
One of the points Mahlet made in her article was about people taking on leadership roles in our community. I think this is an important piece in the puzzle that should start at the collegiate level with Ethiopian student organizations because it gives students the opportunity to put their ideas in action while developing their leadership skills. While there are many active Ethiopian student organizations in major cities with large Habesha communities this is not always the case in smaller cities and towns.
I had a similar experience as Meeraf Taddesse mentioned in her article. I did not have the opportunity to be exposed to Habesha in non traditional fields outside of hearing or reading stories until after grad school. Actually I did not even participate in Habesha events (with the exception of family gatherings and weddings) such as the annual soccer tournament and cultural event until grad school mostly because there were few Habesha where I grew up in Long Island, NY. There was a much larger Habesha population spread about between Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. I wish I had the opportunity to participate in an Ethiopian student organization. Ethiopian student organizations are a powerful tool that I hope will continue to expand to universities and colleges worldwide to bring Habesha in smaller cities and towns together. The organizations can give students the forum to discuss issues across the board from navigating college life to finding ways to contribute back home. The environment will help students develop leadership skills that they can use later in their professional lives. Ideally, the momentum should not stop once students graduate but instead create alumni chapters. Students and alumni can work together to organize collaborative events. When both sides have the opportunity to work together there is an incentive for example for a recent graduate to join the local alumni chapter to help a current student obtain an internship in their field.
I think that the development of more Ethiopian student organizations at the collegiate level throughout the Habesha Diaspora are a step in the right direction for young people to have a voice for their issues and a place to put their ideas together to find real solutions. Students have the opportunity to develop not just leadership skills but a sense of community building.
about 1 year ago
Great article Mahlet, I might have to visit this site b/c i need something to wake my brain up
Disclaimer: I didn’t get a chance to read all the replies to this article…so I might be mentioning things that some others mentioned.
I think it might be social worker in me but for most of the things you mentioned I was able to take it back to our culture. I’m just going to reply to each subtitle you had:
Everybody is an Expert:
Yes that is true, but our culture has thought us that “age equals wisdom” “don’t sit or talk at the same table as your elders” So if you are young the chances of you being heard is slim to non. Back home people went to the elder in area to ask for advice regarding ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. And most people still have not gotten out of that mentality. Professions like Psychology and social work are just fictive professions, in the minds of many of our people.
Taking Leadership:
Again, our culture teaches us to be modest. When I came to this country is when I heard someone say “I’m smart” I was baffled the first time I heard that. In Ethiopia, even when you are told you are smart you are to just shake your head and say “oh, no I’m not”. And these “morals” are deeply rooted that it follows us anywhere. I was a member of this organization in Atlanta, all men and all in their mid or late 40′s, and if it wasn’t for some of the guys there who were really open minded I would’ve never took a leadership role, I would’ve shied away from it. Even then there was one person in their that thought I was too idealist and too young because I haven’t experienced. But generally it was one of the best volunteer experience of my life, which leads me to your next subtitle.
Re-inventing the wheel:
We are soooooooo divided. You are talking about restaurants, look at the churches themselves. How many “Gebriel” Church does one city need? There is problem in communication. Whenever someone does not agree with what one is saying, they just get mad, leave and create their own church. Even when the cause is worshiping God we can’t seem to stand together. With that said, I think this organization i mentioned earlier had the most diverse group of people. There were people of different age group, different ethnic backgrounds and religion who came together to raise money for this children hospital in Ethiopia, the result was $100,000+ for the hospital within a month period of time.
One step forward, two back:
People have been screwed by authority figures over and over, and have a hard time trusting people. In Atlanta the Ethiopian community Association has been around for many years. They started out as a political group, discussing issues in Ethiopia and how to solve them and later change their vision. Throughout the year the leadership it had was just terrible, I hear that there were times people believed in their cause a financially helped that association, to only see no change, no progress, and those in a leadership role sporting fancy cars. Due to this in one of my fundraising efforts i was approached by a man who said “i’m not giving you money, because I’m probably gonna see you a few months with a new car and get pissed.” I really didn’t know what to say to that. The solution to this is just to do what you can do in the limited resources we have and prove we’re here to stay and that we can stand the rain. Another thing that was said to me in this same event is that people already have family members they have to help, which is true. Family members in Ethiopia expect nothing from us (the younger generation) either because we left when we were super young or were born and raised here. In the same token, we don’t feel obligated to help them because we don’t have direct relation to them. So we are more opt to help a general group of ppl rather than family members. This disconnect might also be a reason why our generation might fail in actively doing anything for ethiopia or our community. Because “our community” is more of a comfort zone we get back to like comfort food, when we realized we are not quite Americans.
I know you this is supposed to be solution focused response, but this is what came to my mind. I gotta run but will be back with possible answers.