In March of 2007, I had the opportunity to visit Ethiopia as part of small group from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. The purpose of the trip was to learn about the ancient Ethiopian Jews, the Falasha.
While in the northern city of Gondar, we trekked through the countryside to visit an ancient village, Gendaweha Gabriel, which currently holds the last two remaining Jewish families in the area. These families are now gone and living in Israel. On the way, while passing through another small village, Awdeba, I had an encounter which made a lasting impact on me. There was an open-air village school comprised simply of a torn blue tarp on an old tree; there were no seats for the children, and the learning materials were very rudimentary. The children, however, were full of spirit, happiness, and curiosity, with huge smiles on their faces as I embraced them. Awdeba has never left my heart. I made a promise that day - to fund the construction of a new school and return next year to see the kids. I kept my promise.
The goal of Spread The Love Project is to construct adequate schools for children like the ones in Awdeba and provide necessary learning and teaching materials. To ensure that the project is carried out effectively, funding will be administered by officials of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) who accompanied me on the trip and have been carrying out humanitarian projects in Ethiopia for a number of years. Spread The Love Project is not a Jewish organization and the schools built by Spread The Love Project are not intended for children of any specific religion. However, Spread The Love Project and the JDC work off the Jewish idea of "tikkun olam", or "repairing the world".
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is proud to have been representing world Jewry in Ethiopia since the early 1980s. As one of its core operating principles, and in line with the Jewish value of humanitarian assistance, JDC has been implementing programs for the general Ethiopian population whilst continuing to serve the needs of the 'Beta Israel' or Ethiopian Jewish community.