On August 10th, 2019, Wegene board members and Youth Club officials attended Empower The Community Weekend as exhibitors. This event, organized by Helen Mesfin of The Helen Show, provides empowering panel discussions, resourceful workshops and exhibitors showcasing their products and services. This event serves as a tool for all types of organizations, from nonprofits to local businesses, to get together in the same room and network. Seeing businesses from hair products to real estate showed me how strong and powerful my community really is. It allowed us to start building relationships we need to take Wegene to the next level! Also, seeing women in almost every realm of organizations, was amazing to witness.

We love to see youth getting afforded more leadership opportunities and building their communication skills. My role while at this event was to help run the Wegene booth, alongside some board members and Youth Club officials. We explained Wegene’s mission to all that stopped by: alleviating the poverty cycle in Ethiopia, while keeping families together. Mekleet Melaku, the President of the Youth Club, gave a short interview to Helen on behalf of Wegene.  All in all, we had an amazing time networking with people from all different organization types, while emphasizing the importance of nonprofits’ roles in empowering the community. We also loved having Youth Club members engaging in important roles and responsibilities.