Life as a girl soldier in Eritrea

Ian Brimacombe reports on a woman who fought in the Eritrean struggle for independence from Ethiopia. She was just 13 when she became a soldier. She spent the next 16 years fighting in a brutal guerrilla war.

Meriem Omer began her life as a girl soldier in 1976.

"I joined the cause voluntarily. I felt like I had to do something," she told the BBC's World Update programme. "It was a hot political situation. I saw villages burning. I was surrounded by war. The regime was imprisoning many people. One of them was my father."

"In the battlefield, you could be as aggressive as a man and as merciless as a man"

Elizabeth/ Elsa Chyrum: Human Rights Activist (Eritrea)

On 20 June 2009, Elsa Chyrum, a human rights activist and advocate for Eritrean refugees all over the world, has received a Distinguished Medal Award of Excellence from the Eritrean Community For Human Rights and Refugee Protection in a symposium organized by Eritrean Global Solidarity in recognition of her human rights crusade, in general, and her tireless work with refugees, in particular.

Without exaggeration, Elsa Chyrum is a one-woman institution. First and foremost, she is the one person who has been handling the plight of Eritrean refugees from all over the world single-handedly, be it from stranded Eritreans in Khartoum in imminent risk of their lives, detained and abused refugees in a prison in Libya, traumatized refugees in fear of perishing in the Mediterranean high seas, terrified refugees soon to be deported from Egypt, or refugees who have reached their destination but afraid of rejection by their host country. Calm and reassuring at times of emergency, she is known to have turned hopeless seeming cases into happy endings at the 11^th hour.

America's Got Talent 4 Last Semifinal Round Recap

America got Talent: EriAm Sisters

GYPSY OF THE MONTH: Asmeret Ghebremichael of 'The Wiz'

Ghebremichael is in the cast of the Wiz that begins performances June 12 at City Center, this year’s installment of Encores! Summer Stars. When she was in high school, she landed her first professional job in a production of The Wiz at Pittsburgh’s Bynum Theater, directed by Billy Porter (like Ghebremichael, a native of Pittsburgh). She’d had her first-ever role in a musical when she played Dorothy in The Wiz in middle school.

After that sixth-grade Wiz, Ghebremichael announced to her family: “Okay, I want to move to New York, I want to go to NYU, and I want to be on Broadway.” Her mother and father, a nurse and electrical engineer who’d immigrated from the north African nation of Eritrea, were nonplussed: “When I said that I wanted to do this for a living, they had no idea what it entailed.” Yet their daughter managed to achieve all three goals within the decade: She made her Broadway debut in Footloose at age 18, just a few months into her freshman year at NYU.

Now, with another decade under her belt, Ghebremichael can also list these achievements: a featured role on Broadway, a scene in a major motion picture, ensemble parts in a string of hit musicals, and the female lead in an award-winning independent film.

A voice for the voiceless Helen Berhane

 Helen was in detention in Eritrea for refusing to denounce her evangelical Christian faith. She was arrested from Asmara and stayed for 32 months in prison. She suffered numerous beatings that resulted in severe nerve damage and has permanently impaired her mobility.

Helen was invited to the Kirchentag by a Germany organization called International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) which focuses on religious persecution. Helen was also a prize winner of this organization while she was still in prison in 2005 for her strong tolerance against torture. She got her prize last June in Frankfurt Germany. 

Feben Solomon aka Bisrat Tewelde

"Make it a habit to tell people thank you.
To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you'll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you'll find that you have more of it."
Ralph Marston