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On the 23rd of February 2011, the Japan Ethiopia Alumni Society (JEAS) founding assembly was held at the residence of the Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia. The assembly unanimously elected Dr. Solomon Yirga, Associate Professor at the Addis Ababa University, as Chairperson of the Society while the Japanese Ambassador H.E. Mr. Hiroyuki Kishino was elected as Honorary Advisor and Ambassador Mahdi Ahmed, former Ambassador of Ethiopia to Japan (1996-2002) and currently Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, as an Advisor. Dr. Solomon is one of the first Monbukagakusho scholarship students who studied in Japan in the 1980s. Dr. Tamirat Bayle, Dr. Kurkula Kabeto and Ato Shiferaw Alemu were also elected as Deputy Chairpersons and representatives of the Addis Ababa, Mekele and Non-academic Representative respectively.
The purpose of the Society is to encourage exchanges among the Almuni members to advance grassroots friendship as well as to promote cultural ties between Japanese and Ethiopian people. According to the By-Laws, which were adopted unanimously, “membership of the Society shall be Ethiopians who have studied or served in Japan for some time”.
On the occasion, Ambassador Kishino celebrated the founding of the Alumni Society and proposed co-organizing the next cultural event with JEAS, calling upon its members to come up with ideas and projects.
Dr. Solomon Yirga, Chairman of JEAS, for his part thanked Ambassador Kishino for promising the secretariat work of JEAS will be done by the Cultural Section of the Embassy. “I thank the Ambassador for working hard to make this day a reality”, Dr. Solomon added.
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