FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Youth in Charge Invites Samuel Gebru to Share Leadership Experience Boston, Mass.

, July 12, 2012 Mr. Samuel M. Gebru, Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Global Initiative (EGI), spoke to Youth in Charge (YIC), an African diaspora youth group in the Boston area, on Monday, July 9 sharing his experience in leadership and public service. Samuel Gebru began his commitment to public service as a 13-year-old in 8th grade. Inspired by the work of Drs. Reginald and Catherine Hamlin healing women in Ethiopia suffering from obstetric fistula, a devastating childbirth injury, Samuel launched a youth group that successfully raised funds to support their work at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. The group he launched in early 2005 grew into the Ethiopian Global Initiative. The CEOs meeting with YIC was successful. The groups makeup currently consists of diaspora youth from Ethiopia and Somalia and has ambitions to involve more Africans. YIC strives to bring local youth together to address the challenges that exist in Somalia and Africa as well as the issues facing diaspora youth in the Boston area. The CEO hailed their approach, advising them that they have a shared identity of being equally from the United States and Somalia. Samuel commended their desire to promote peace and social justice through youth leadership. When I started public service, people looked at me and criticized me for everything under the sun, adding that adults questioned me, my motives, ethnicity and political views without even knowing me or understanding that my commitment was ultimately to my community. The youth agreed that they must strive to be public servants. When you put the community before yourself and are at their disposal, you are a public servant. We are youth and unlike our parents and their generation, we see shades of gray, not black and white, Samuel said. Most of YICs members were born in Somalia, and many of them lived in Dadaab Refugee Camp, the largest in the world. The youth expressed that Samuels advice and experience in the affairs of Ethiopia and his hometown Cambridge, MA were important and inspiring. About the Ethiopian Global Initiative The Ethiopian Global Initiative is an international nonprofit organization that combines and captures the social and intellectual capital of students and professionals for the transformation of Ethiopia through a new generation of socially responsible leaders. Working throughout the world, the Initiative serves as a catalyst for community-based projects to promote civic engagement and economic prosperity.
www.ethgi.org | action@ethgi.org | +1-617-528-9434

Media Contact Mr. Michael S. Tadesse Chief Communication Officer michael@ethgi.org +1-617-528-9434 ###

www.ethgi.org | action@ethgi.org | +1-617-528-9434