Geneva Charity for Eritrean Refugee School in Sudan

Geneva Charity for Eritrean Refugee School in Sudan
Holds 3-Day Fund Collection at 2013 Music Festival

ASEE

The Geneva-based association for Eritrean refugee children at Wad Sherifey in East Sudan (ASEE - Association Suisse Enfance-Erythree) organized during the past weekend a successful three-day fund-raising event at the 22nd Music Festival in Geneva.

A clear sky and hot sun in Geneva between Friday 21 and Sunday 23 June 2013 contributed in making this year’s music festival as well as the sale of food and drinks by ASEE very successful..

ASEE is a small non-profit humanitarian organization that supports since 2005 the Wad Sherifey refugee elementary school for about 600 Eritrean children. The event helped ASEE raise around US$ 15,000 which will go towards covering the basic school needs, especially stipends for the teaching staff. The teaching staff are still considered as semi-volunteers and are still paid much less than other teaching staff in the region. With more support, it would be possible to upgrade their stipends and also expand enrollment in the school to reach up to 800 students.

The ASEE stand enjoyed long queues of people lining up for Eritrean enjera, sambusa as well as Swiss and Sudanese delicacies.  Festival crowds looked for food and drinks up to 2 a.m. every while enjoying the 500 concerts and operas organized all over the city with 7,000 artists performing different shows. Local papers reported that there were about 250,000 participants at this year’s successful Fete de la Musique of Geneva.

The work was quite challenging to about 20 ASEE members and supporters who took part in the three-day event of sale of food and drinks.

Among the work participants were young Eritreans who started their education at Wad Sherifey school and some who knew the school very closely. Wad Sherifey elementary school was established in 1984 by the Eritrean Red Cross and Red Crescent Society which is still in charge of its administration.  

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