Tesfaldet A. Meharenna owner of Asmarino .com received an award in recognition of his outstanding achievement and excellent services at the recent Eritrean Global Solidarity symposium in Washington D.C. When the award was presented by a distinguished professor and one of Africa’s few constitutional scholars, Dr Bereket Habteselassie, there was jubilation and ululation from the audience and everyone celebrated with tears, screams of joy and finally they rocked the house with “Wesede Ayay Wesed, Wesede Tes Beal Sere” The aura of jubilation left Tes speechless, he tried to utter some words, he looked around, up and down and no words; he was totally over whelmed with joy. Other award recipients include Elsa Churum, champion Eritrean human rights activist and Dr Tricia Heppner, a long time friend of Eritrea and advocate of the prisoners of conscience.
Asmairno.com has been one of the major sources of first hand information about Eritrea for the last decade. The website is ardent supporter of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Press. It provides open platforms for all Eritreans including supporters as well as opposition of the present government of Eritrea.
Kelit Alazar
New York
The conditions in Wi’a concentration/training camp in the past 7- 9 months have worsened more than any other time. Food rations were reduced further to 3 pieces of sorghum bread per person per day without any supplements such as sauce except limited ration of tea. The shortage of food is compounded by the closure of the camp for family visits which used to facilitate the supply of food from families and relatives to the prisoners/trainees. The shortage of food combined with the very poor sanitation conditions, harsh environmental conditions, fatigue resulting from training exercises and almost non-existent health facilities and health care services in the camp has lead to sustained outbreaks of meningitis, typhoid and scabies resulting in alarming mass deaths. 
But the war, and the crisis in its aftermath, radically altered this three-pronged approach. First, the community-oriented feature of the website, although not totally abandoned, came to suffer as a result of the deep fracture within the Eritrean community that took place after the war. Second, Eritrea itself became off limits; and the dream of joining the Eritrean people in building the nation was indefinitely deferred. And third, as a result of the poisoned climate that came to prevail after the war, the idea of a greater community in the Horn and East Africa was abandoned. Instead, as is the case with most Eritreans, the political, humanitarian and existential crisis in Eritrea came to dominate the dialog in Asmarino – a debate that is still raging on. 
