EAF Objectives

Introduction

The drive to establish the Ethiopian American Educational Foundation, which shall be known as

the Ethiopian American Foundation (EAF), is to make a tangible investment in the present and

future generations of Ethiopians to live up to the demands of universal ideal of intellectual

excellence. EAF’s also supports academic integrity, academic freedom, and cultural and

political pluralism, qualities that have been the hallmark of Ethiopia’s institutions of higher

learning since their establishment in the 1950s. EAF is a non-political organization whose aim is

to help restore the multifaceted role of higher education in Ethiopia by bringing to bear the

collective effort of Ethiopians, Ethiopian Americans, Americans and friends of Ethiopia

interested in revamping the principal functions of higher education in Ethiopia. EAF shall serve

as a focal point to which contributions in ideas, time and resources from such constituencies

would be channeled to help strengthen Ethiopia's institutions of higher learning and enable them

to face up to the challenges of the 21st century. In pledging our best intentions and efforts to

these ideals, we pay gratitude to those who have laid the foundation and made indelible marks

for academic freedom and democracy in Ethiopia.

Rational for the Establishment of EAF

The basic rationale for EAF is to serve as an institutional vehicle for use by Ethiopians,

Ethiopian Americas, Americans and friends of Ethiopia interested in supporting higher education

by marshaling intellectual, financial and material resources for the purpose of making a

difference in tertiary education. EAF is particularly critical at this time. There are three reasons

for this. First, higher education in Ethiopia has been under dire straits for reasons that have their

roots in political, human capital, and financial factors. Many of its faculty and students have

suffered from years of attrition and instability and have left its ranks for a variety of reasons.

Because of the country’s economic conditions in the last three decades, budgets for higher

education have been meager causing shortage of funds to sustain the university’s principal

missions, maintain and upgrade its physical plant and modernize its instructional and research

equipment. The number of universities has also risen to over 20 from only a handful a decade

ago. Second, traditional foreign sources of funds from overseas for training, technical support

and research funds, which have in the past made significant contributions to build higher

education in Ethiopia, had dwindled and are not commensurate with Ethiopia’s growing needs

especially in these times of fiscal constraints in donor countries. Third, numerous educated

Ethiopians who have left their county in large numbers are established in their chosen domiciles

abroad and most are capable and desirous to collaborate with and or assist their colleagues in

Ethiopia to meet the challenges of higher education.

Areas of Cooperation

The role of EAF would include granting faculty and student fellowships and financing a variety

of academic programs for faculty such as sabbaticals, study leaves and short-term retooling and

training programs in Ethiopia or abroad. EAF will also make it possible for closer collaboration

between Ethiopian and US academics in research, teaching, graduate student training, sabbatical

swaps, conferences, seminars, roundtables, publication projects, summer workshops, study

abroad projects, student fieldwork and a variety of similar undertakings. Another area of

cooperation is in the supply of instructional and research materials such as text books,

periodicals, computers, laboratory supplies and field research equipment. Because of budgetary

problems and foreign exchange constraints, such supplies have become very difficult to secure

not only in Ethiopia but also all over Africa. There have been attempts by US institutions to

assist in this area, but this, as important as it is, cannot be expected to solve the fundamental

constraint. EAF’s activity in this area may include the support of libraries to restore, initiate

and/or maintain subscriptions to essential periodicals of creative scholarship and purchase of new

texts, reference materials, manuals, software and similar reading materials for immediate access

by scholars and students. EAF may also extend equipment grants for departments to modernize

and/or upgrade their teaching and research work. This may focus on critical need areas for

computers and laboratory equipment.

Organization of EAF

EAF is a Section 501(a) membership-based non-profit and tax exempt organization devoted to

supporting higher education in Ethiopia. The organization is free of any religious, ethnic or

political affiliation. It is an open organization which would welcome the membership of and/or

contribution from any one individual who supports the aims and objectives of the organization.

The organization is governed by its statutes. Membership in EAF would hopefully include the

widest possible representation of persons of Ethiopian origin, Americans, and friends of Ethiopia

from anywhere who support the objectives of EAF. The EAF statutes contain the objectives of

the Foundation, membership responsibilities, and administrative organization. The EAF statutes

allow a variety of affiliations and financial commitments to the organization. The administrative

structure includes a policy-making Board of Trustees elected by EAF members, an Executive

Committee derived from and appointed by the Board of Trustees, and a secretariat headed by an

Executive Director appointed by the Board of Trustees. The secretariat is located in the United

States of America in the city where the Executive Director resides. Chapters of EAF may be

formed in various locations in the United States, Ethiopia and elsewhere. The general

membership would be informed and networked on a regular basis by a newsletter whose

frequency would be determined by the EAF board of trustees.

The EAF Capital Fund

The Ethiopian American Educational Foundation (EAF) is a membership-fee-based organization

in which dues collected from members are used to build a capital fund whose investment yields

are used to advance the objectives of EAF. Initially, EAF has devoted its financial support for

faculty and graduate student research projects in Ethiopian universities. However, EAF also has

plans to diversify its support of Ethiopian higher education in other areas such as undergraduate

scholarships in Ethiopian colleges and universities, faculty sabbaticals and study leaves for

teaching and research, targeted conferences and workshops in higher education in Ethiopia,

support of library collections, computing technology, laboratory equipment, and publication

projects in Ethiopia, and enable summer workshops, study abroad programs and a variety of

similar undertakings inside and outside Ethiopia. EAF funds are collected from the following

sources:

1. Pledges from founding members and lifetime members of EAF

2. Regular EAF membership dues

3. Gifts, memorials and endowments

4. Matching grants

5. Fund raisers (e.g. national, regional and local cultural functions)

6. In-kind (material) contributions

7. Reinvested proceeds from assets already held by EAF.

EAF is a Section 501(c) tax exempt organization. The EAF Treasurer will issue receipts

annually for tax reporting purposes with the IRS.

EAF’s Hopes and Aspirations

The founders hope that that EAF will become a reputable and credible organization with clearly

stated objectives and institutional means to achieve them, making it worthy of the support of

many Ethiopians, Ethiopian Americans, Americans, and friends of Ethiopia from elsewhere. On

their part, the founders and the leadership of EAF pledge to live us to the principles of EAF and

run the organization in accordance with its statutes.

April 1993

Rev. January 2008

Okemos, MI