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His Excellency Meles Zenawi
Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Repbulic of Ethiopia
Meles Zenawi was born on 8th May 1955 at Adwa in northern Ethiopia.
He received elementary education at the Queen of Sheba Junior Secondary School and completed High School in 1972 at General Wingate School in Addis Ababa. He then joined the Medical Faculty of Addis Ababa University where he studied for two years.
Meles interrupted his studies in 1974 to join the Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). He was elected to the Leadership of the Leadership Committee of the TPLF in 1979 and to its Executive Committee in 1983. He is chairman of both the TPLF and the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) since 1989. EPRDF is a political alliance of the four main political organisations in the country.
Upon the defeat of the military junta, Meles became president of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia and Chairman of the Council of Representatives (the legislative body of the transitional government) from 1991 to 1995. He was elected Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1995 and re-elected for a second term in 2000.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has won international and domestic admiration and respect for leading Ethiopia on a peaceful and democratic path during the challenging period of the transition. He continues to lead Ethiopia towards long-term stability and economic reconstruction.
He served as chairman of the Organisation of the African Union from June 1995 until June 1996. He is serving as co-chairman of the Global Coalition for Africa. He has also been actively involved in IGAD's efforts to end the conflicts in Sudan and Somalia, and Africa initiatives to seek a solution to the crises in Burundi. In 2004, he was appointed by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as one of the Commissioners taking part in the Commission for Africa.
Meles acquired a First Class M.A. in Business Administration from the Open University of the United Kingdom in 1995 and an MSc. in Economics from the Erasmus University of the Netherlands in 2004.
The Prime Minister is married and is a father of three. His hobbies are reading, swimming and tennis.
MP Lidetu Ayalew- Lidetu Ayalew- A Rising Politician
Araya Zerihun, Development Activist and Businessman
All his life, Araya Zerihun was an invaluable advocate of the poor and a hard working visionary who left a very good life in the United States to work with his people back home, according to the accounts of many who came to know him.
He returned to Ethiopia two years after the ousting of a military regime that fought a rebel movement from his home, Tigray. Araya was born in 1947 in the small town where Prime Minister Meles Zenawi came from, Adwa, to his father Kegnazimach Zerihun Getahun and his mother Aster Ashel.
In 1993, Araya helped establish the Tigray Development Association (TDA) in order to rehabilitate a region torn apart with a civil war of almost two decades. He stayed with the TDA for the following 10 years, serving as a Chairman of the Board.
He was not only "visionary"; Yusuf Reja, managing director of Info Mind Solutions, described him as a humble in all his deeds. Yusuf also recalled that Araya was always there whenever development work was needed anywhere in the country. He contributed to the formation of different development associations in the regions, especially active in sharing his experiences of the business of development works. In fact, he was the first to introduce fundraising through telethon activities.
Under Araya's leadership, TDA made considerable progress. A number of special schools were built in the region, including the Mekelle Institute of Technology (MIT). He will not, however, see the product of the Institute, which will graduate its first this year.
At TDA, Araya also participated on the state level in construction, transportation, education, and health sectors.
One of the achievements credited to him is the Circus Tigray, an organisation which supported street children who did not have much hope in life. Circus children not only became musicians and artists all by their own right, but some of them continued their education.
Solomon Enquay (PhD), former speaker of the Tigray Regional State Council, remembers Araya as someone who was close to his people and who always thought about how he could develop the poor by building schools in rural areas. They have known each other for the past 19 years, and were very close. Ararya's idea of building the Kalamino School proved that the poor who could not pass elementary school can one day reach the university level, Solomon said.
And this needed someone like Araya who not only talked about problems, but was a leader who came up with solutions.
Dr. Ghelawdewos Araya of the Institute of Development and Education for Africa (IDEA) in the U.S. knew Araya for 30 years. Their friendship was reinforced when they became colleagues in the formation and subsequent operation of the TDA.
Ghelawdewos remembers when the two men had to drive from New York to Maryland, and through the entire trip they were immersed in discussing development agendas. But there were also times when they were relaxed, enjoying an Ethiopian restaurant on New York's 18th Street.
But, Ghelawdewos recalled, a few years after the formation of TDA, Araya was assigned to head the international headquarters of the organization in Mekelle, and during the second annual conference of TDA, in Mekelle in 1994, they met again.
TDA conferees came from all over the world; despite the festive mood and well organized schedules for the entire week at Mekelle City Hall, Ghelawdewos could not help but read fatigue on Araya's countenance.
"He was a brave man with utmost commitment," he recalled, "but he too is flesh and had to exhibit wear and tear on his physiology. And I said to him, 'you are well dressed and look sharp but you look so tired' and he replied, 'I am Ok but I did not sleep last night.”
It could be said, Ghelawdewos felt, that Araya had not had enough sleep in the last 10 years.
"His untimely death could have been a combination of fatigue, stress, and unwellness," he said in a posting on a blog marking Araya’s death. "I am terribly sad by his departure, but I can see his legacy living through the ages and his torch blazing as beacon and hope for future generations of Ethiopians."
In business, as in development, he never acted like a manager and a boss, according to employees at MAA Garment, a plant located in the town of Mekelle, 780Km north of Addis. He established it after he left TDA in 2003, with investment coming from Sheik Al-Amoudi, who flew from Jeddah last week, to attend his funeral at Holy Trinity Cathedral.
People close to him recall Araya working hard managing MAA Garment, the newly built garment factory, striving to turn it into a successful company.
He is survived by his wife and seven children.
The Hon. W/ro Shitaye Minale Tizazu, B.A, M.A
MP,Deputy Speaker of House of Peoples' Represenatives
She was born in Adet Woreda of West Gojam of the Amhara state. She attended her elementary school education at the same place and she continued here high school education in Bahir Dar “ Tana Hayik” Secondary School. After completing her high school education she joined the Bahir Dar University and graduated with a B.A. degree in the field of pedagogical science.
Then, she had served as a teacher in various high schools and teacher education institutions for about 5 years in Amhara Regional State. Then, she served the Amhara Education Bureau as curriculum development expert and headed the Region’s women’s affair activities as a chairperson. After that, in 2000, she was elected for the House of Peoples’ representatives in the second national election. She served the House as a chairperson of the sub-committee of infrastructures in the previous House. And, she is elected for the second time in the third national election last May representing the Goji constituency of the Western Gojam.
Currently, she is elected Deputy Speaker of the House of Peoples Representatives.
Shitaye aquired a M.A. degree from Addis Ababa University in the field
of development studies.
Highlights
Women should come to a decision making position
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