9380 phones in Eritrea receive messages calling for school and work boycott

9380 phones in Eritrea receive messages calling for school and work boycott

Project ArbiHarnet (Freedom Friday), just completed its ‘March for Freedom’ Action Week with nearly 10,000 automated calls and several one to one follow up calls this week.

The Campaign that was organised to take place during the second month anniversary since soldiers from the Eritrean Defence Force raided the Ministry of Information in Forto Asmara to read out a set of demands for the restoration of human and democratic rights, called on Eritrean students and workers to boycott school and work, on Friday the 22nd of March 2013.

The Robo-messages which were recorded and delivered in three different languages: Arabic, Tigrigna and Tigre, reminded young Eritreans about the proud history of resistance that resulted in the liberation of Eritrea and called on them to live up to that legacy.

The calls were supported by many Eritreans, from the diaspora, who contributed to the cost of the calls and participated in the drafting, editing and translating of messages. The coordinating group Project ArbiHarnet have been making appeals for support since beginning of the month and say they have received all the support they required to make the project a success.

This morning members of the Project Team were phoning various schools in Eritrea trying to assess the mood in high and middle schools, reporting on the conclusion of the project one coordinator said: ‘the purpose of the exercise is as much to get conversations about resistance started, as it is about ensuring that the people remain engaged with the tide for change, so I guess if over the next couple of days we receive feedback about people discussing the calls we would conclude it was a successful mission. The follow up calls were interesting in the fact that clearly some members of the schools’ administration staff we got hold of, were aware of the calls. It is our hope that these calls will contribute to heralding the change that is due in Eritrea’.

The project was also designed to coincide with the second anniversary of a shipwreck that claimed the lives of over 400 Eritreans off the cost of Libya, many families in Eritrea are still grieving for their lost and unaccounted for children.

Team ArbiHarnet will continue to work of the theme ‘keeping hope alive in Eritrea’ and will launch various initiatives to be implemented in April and May.

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