Keynote Remarks to Nazareth School from Ms. Sophia Bekele

EntSun - Jan. 5, 2015 - ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Addis Ababa Ethiopia.  Founder of DCA Trust was invited to make a Keynote address at the Diamond Jubilee - 60th Anniversary celebration of the Nazareth School, held at the Sheraton Hotel, Addis Ababa Ethiopia on January 3rd 2015.. Ms. Bekele's remarks can be found below.

Honoured Guests, Alumna of Nazareth School, Academic Leaders, Students & Parents of Nazareth School, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am deeply honored and thank you for inviting me to make this keynote remark. It is with great pleasure that I send this goodwill message to the 60th anniversary celebration to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Nazareth School.

I am unavoidably absent because of scheduling conflicts at this time of the year, but I really wish I could attend this grand occasion in Addis Ababa. Therefore, I thank our school principal the Hon. Brother Betre Fisseha for presenting  the below remarks on my behalf.

Let me begin by congratulating Nazareth School for attaining 60 years since it was founded as an institution for the training of young girls and women. This is an important milestone that is worth celebrating, especially all the important achievements that have been registered over the past 60 years.

As an Alumna of Nazareth School, I am indeed proud of my early association with our great school which has a very impressive history.  I am sure that the other Alumna are also very proud of our Alma Mater - a school that is devoted to the proper development of the moral character of young girls and women; as well as equipping them with the right academic and skills training they need to pursue fulfillment in different spheres of life.

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For successfully sustaining this mission during the past 60 years, I wish to also pay tribute to those who had the vision to establish the school, and all the principals and teachers that have served the school since it was founded.

Therefore, allow me to also use this opportunity to mention that the dream of female youth education is one that we must all work hard to realize. An educated girl is already empowered, since she can pursue her life goals independently.  As young girls and women, we must continue to assert our rights to a good education.

At the beginning of December 2014, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani young girl became the co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace award. We may all recall that she had been shot by the Pakistani Taliban who did not want girls in that country to be educated; but Malala Yousafzai did not accept the intimidation of those who want to restrict access of girls to education, and decided to oppose the Taliban. Her life story will continue to inspire many people in the years to come.

For those of us who received our formative academic experience from Nazareth School, this occasion is also an important time to give back to the school.

Therefore, towards assisting the objectives of the organizers to solicit support and harness resources for the development of Nazareth School, I wish to, on behalf of myself, and on behalf of the organizations that I lead, namely DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA Trust) and DCA Registry Services Ltd., to make the following contributions:

From my own personals funds, I would like to announce the establishment of a 'Sophia Bekele Scholarship Fund' in the sum of Birr 100,000.00 (One hundred thousand Ethiopian Birr) for the benefit of Nazareth School students.  This amount would be drawn-down and disbursed to the Nazareth School to the most deserving students of the school on the basis of academic excellence and leadership achievement.

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DCA Trust has founded a subsidiary to operate the registry services of the DotAfrica Internet Domain Name - a continental Top-Level Domain that would benefit Africans. According to the Charitable Objects of DCA Trust, it is intended that the surplus revenues obtained from the registry business activities would be channeled towards meeting the charitable objects of the trust fund. Funds would be regularly allocated towards different corporate social responsibility programs.  To this end, two important initiatives have already been started namely generation.africa and miss.africa.

Miss.Africa: The Miss.Africa programme is a gender-focused initiative targeted mainly at female youth audiences in Africa to increase their personal involvement in early technology use and adoption with a view to improving their digital self-awareness and empowerment, and overall self-esteem.

Generation.Africa:  Generation.Africa is a youth focused program launched by DCA to empower a new generation of Internet users in Africa using its generation.africa theme. It is aimed at different youth audiences and encourages their involvement in the development and evolution of the Internet.

Therefore, I would like to urge the girls and young women of Nazareth School to remain strongly committed to pursuing good education as a tool of empowerment. Particularly, I encourage them to pursue opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) - since these disciplines would lead to many important career choices and opportunities in the future.

It is important to note that an educational institution like Nazareth school would no doubt qualify for charitable contributions from our trust fund in the future. Therefore, we shall always KIV the needs and expectations of Nazareth School, and keep their development needs in view to make sure that we remember the school as soon as surplus revenues start accumulating in the DCA Trust Fund. We therefore hope to keep supporting the school well into the future.

Once again, I would like to congratulate Nazareth School on this happy occasion of the Golden Jubilee.  Let me also wish you all a Happy New Year of 2015.

May God bless Nazareth School and God bless you all. Thank you.

Sophia Bekele Eshete,  Alumna, Nazareth School Addis Ababa