Seattle - Educational meeting for Eritreans conducted
Jan 28, 2007
A meeting organized by the
United Eritrean Parents Association was held in Seattle on January 28th.
The meeting was the result and continuation of the relentless effort being
exerted by Eritreans in Seattle to improve the child/parent relationship in
general and to foster the well being of youth Eritreans in particular.
The focus of this meeting
was on the following two issues:
1. How to fight crime and
improve our community’s relationship with the law enforcement body
2. How to raise awareness
regarding the risks diabetes posses to our community and how we to study the
impact to East Africans in the US
1. Mr. James Koutsky,
president of the police detective unit in Seattle and Kim Bugucki from the
public relations for East Africans gave a presentation on how the law enforcement
organs in various section of the greater Seattle operate. Mr. Koutsky stated
that Eritreans need to participate in the law enforcement of their city and
their second country by applying for jobs within the Police department. Joining
the police helps bridge the gap that exists between the police and the Eritrean
community. The perception that Police officers use excessive force when dealing
with foreigners may be alleviated by joining the police and become part of
the police. He handed out brochures
that encourage Eritreans to apply for jobs within the Police departments.
The participants of the
meeting asked questions and stated that the police department needs to do more
to recruit Eritreans. The participants agreed to work to improve the trust
between the police and community.
Having Eritreans in the police department could be helpful to deal with
the perception as well as to educate and create role models for the younger generation.
To that end the participants invited the police department to hold a job fair
at larger Eritrean events and/or cosponsor the events. The participants also
gave their comments and opinion how the police and other public service
organizations can be effective by considering the Eritrean culture when helping
Eritrean parents who are dealing with troubled kids.
2. Professor and genetic
scientist Christopher Charleston, together with Yorusalem Kahsay a researcher
from University of Washington presented their research that focuses on studying
the effect of diabetes on East African immigrants in the USA. Professor Charleston
indicated that in addition to the food and parental heredity, genetics may
be a major factor in how diabetes affects communities. Previous studies show
that Mexicans and African Americans seem to suffer from diabetes the most.
East African communities were not included in the study and he plans to conduct
a through study that hopefully gives a better picture of how East Africans
are affected. It is believed that our kids would be negatively impacted since
they will have genetic as well as nutritional factors that challenges. Yorusalem
explained how dedicated she is to help uncover the relationship between East
African genetics and Diabetes. She distributed a brochure in Tigirnia
From a quick survey during
the meeting, it sounded like almost every family is somehow affected by diabetes.
Eritreans who have first hand encounter with diabetes shared their experience
and how they think became victims of diabetes. Participants admired the work that Professor
Charleston and Yorusalem are doing and pledged their support in any future
plans to collect data.
Although the meeting was
extremely interesting and very educational to every Eritrean, the number of
Eritreans who attended the meeting was very disappointing. Lack of participation
and interest in matters that affect our youth’s future is a major problem
within our community. In light of this we urge every Eritrean to participate
in future gatherings.
