Mereja.Forum

“It’s not Over Until it’s Over”

By: Mikal Tesfay

https://shabait.com/2021/07/14/its-not- ... -its-over/

Q & A

Jul 14, 2021



Our guests today are Amanuel Gebregziabhier and Merhawi Kudus, Eritrean cyclists who are living their dreams. They are set to go to Tokyo to compete at the 2020 Olympics, which had to be put off last year; due to COVID-19. (In the next issue of Eritrea Profile we will have a Q&A with Mosana Debessai, the first Eritrean female cyclist to compete at the Olympics.)

Merhawi and Amanuel, tell us a little bit about yourselves?

My name is Merhawi Kudus. I was introduced to bicycle racing when I was young and used to race with my friends and peers. Besides, I have a cousin who used to race. So this and that made me fall in love with the bicycle and racing. I began to take cycling as a career when I took part in a cycling race organized by the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students in 2006. Then I got an opportunity to join the World Cycling Center in Europe. Finally, I became a professional rider in 2014. Now I’m riding with Astana, one of the biggest world tour teams.


Amanuel Gebregziabhier

My name is Amanuel Gebregziabhier. As a kid, I used to get jealous of my friends who had the chance to compete and that jealousy led me to professional cycling. I joined Asbeco cycling club in 2007 and won the Eritrean championship in road cycling in 2014. I was on the startup list for the 2015 Tour de France, where my compatriots Merhawi Kudus and Daniel Teklehaimanot became the first two black Africans to compete on the tour. Then I joined Team Dimension Data Continental in 2016. After joining the World Tour back in 2018, signing for Trek-Segafredo over the winter was one of the biggest milestones in my career. Now that I’m a professional, I have more dreams to achieve in the future.

Eritrea is sending three athletes to participate in the Olympics. What makes this special?

Amanuel — I consider this an opportunity to show the results of the hard work of every athlete in Eritrea. Every athlete knows that this chance comes once in four years. There are countries participating with five players but for some reason, that hasn’t even bothered us. In the last Olympics, only one athlete represented Eritrea in cycling. The fact that Eritrea is represented by three athletes this year shows the long way we have come in cycling. I guess being able to participate in such an event is an honor to us and our country.

Merhawi — I believe it’s really a big deal. Every athlete knows that competing at the Olympics is a rare opportunity in our career as it is the highest level in cycling. Three athletes participating from the same country in cycling shows the progress the country has made in that specific type of sport. This makes you proud not only as an Eritrean but also as an African. It is indeed special for Eritrea to be represented by three athletes in the same sport.

Merhawi, you participated in Tour-de-France in 2015. Since then you have been waiting for the chance to compete at the Olympics. How do you feel now?

Yes, it is true. I have been waiting for this day. Back in 2015, Daniel Teklehaimanot and I participated in Tour-de- France. I had limited experience then compared to the experience I now have. But the tour helped me to recognize my weakness and work harder to qualify for the Olympics. Whatever I was feeling inside, I knew I would eventually experience outside. Now that I finally got the chance to participate in the Olympics, it feels like a dream come true and I want to have good results.

You finished second in the Eritrean National Championship this year. How did it make you feel to see a junior cyclist take the spot from you? Will it affect you in your upcoming games?

I was delighted to see such young competitive fellows. You can sense that they can be someone big in the near future. What makes the National Championship special is that you get to wear the national flag throughout the year while racing. That gives you motivation and boosts your morale.

Your question was ‘will it affect me?’ Of course, I failed to get the chance to wear the flag throughout the year but it won’t have that much effect on my performance in the upcoming games. However, I’m really glad to see those junior cyclists following in our footsteps.

What would you like to say to the junior cyclists?



Amanuel — I experienced so many setbacks and outright defeats in the course of my career. But it is the ability to respond positively and constructively to these defeats and to bounce back that ultimately has assured my success. So I want the junior cyclists to have this quality of bouncing back as it will determine their success. I would also like them to realize that the very act of thinking of yourself as potentially excellent at what you do actually changes your mindset and personality. I want them to have that mindset to be the kind of cyclists they want to be tomorrow.

How about you, Merhawi?



Well, there is something that I can’t deny. These young fellows are way smarter than we are and they are ambitious. Perhaps the most important quality of high achieving men and women is their ambition. They see themselves, think about themselves, and conduct themselves every day as though they were among the elite in their fields. They set high goals and continuously work hard to exceed those goals. They look upon the accomplishments of everyone else as challenges to themselves to be even better. This shows you that they will excel and do much better in cycling than we have done. So for me to tell them to work hard and play well would be a bit more like a cliché. Simply wishing them good luck will be sufficient for such cyclists.

What should we expect from you?

Of course, you can’t say this and that about the game but there is one thing for sure. We will do our very best and we wish to come back to our homeland with a victory. We have been longing for the opportunity to participate and, hopefully, win and make our families and our people proud.

A dream almost broken - Mosana Debesay on her way to the Olympics

Tuesday, Jul 13, 2021

in Pro Cycling

https://www.bikeaid.de/en/racing/racing ... cc1a94715b

What is hardly achievable for male African cyclists is even more difficult for women. Therefore, we would like to help a female athlete a little bit and almost harmed her.



Mosana Debesay can make history for cycling in Africa. Never before has there been a female black African in the Olympic road race. Mosana from Eritrea can change that. Raised in a cycling family, several brothers were or are professional cyclists, including Mekseb Debesay.

For any male African, the decision to take up cycling is already a big gamble. Be it because of low chances to get a place in a team, the big obstacles regarding visa restrictions but also the difficulty to convince the own family. Those who grow up in developing countries are busy with the daily struggle of securing their livelihood. Families need the strong young to feed the family. How should it be possible to put one's strength into hard training over several years, where performance only comes from the luxury circumstances of a balanced daily routine of good food and regeneration. With the very dim prospect of achieving success at some point?

It is easy to imagine that it is much more difficult for young girls to make such a decision. Mosana Debesay is one of them who has this courage and is doing pioneering work for an entire continent. She wanted to race her bike like her brothers. It is no coincidence that cycling is seen as a symbol of individual freedom, the possibility of breaking spatial and thus also ideological boundaries under one's own steam. In some countries, therefore, cycling is still forbidden for women, fearing too much self-determination for women.

Mosana Debesay was the 2018 African Champion in the individual time trial in Rwanda, and in 2019 she won the road race at the African Championships in Ethiopia. This qualified her for the Tokyo Olympics. Then came Corona, Olympics was postponed and for Mosana it became harder and harder to compete internationally and keep fighting for her goal.

We didn't want to leave her alone with this, since African cycling is one of our core topics. Without further ado, we discussed with our sponsors how we could support her on the way to the Olympics and everyone was on board. So she came to Saarland, was able to train here and compete in some races with the BIKE AID Women Team.

She was just about to find self-confidence and motivation again when an accident happened to her during a training ride. On a very narrow country road in the neighboring Lorraine near Bärenthal, a car driver came racing from behind, cut her off with a risky overtaking maneuver, so that she lost control and crashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle at full speed. Anyone looking at the remains of her helmet will quickly realize how lucky she was. Mosana had some severe abrasions and bruises, remained unconscious under the vehicle of the shocked driver. But her helmet had probably done the maximum possible service to the last nuance, her skull remained intact.

Several police cars, the fire department and ambulances rushed to the scene, car drivers stopped, but the person who caused the accident had long since committed a hit-and-run. There this young brave girl was lying on the street, she had taken so much on herself, had come from Africa to Saarland and had come so close to her dream and everything could have been over. Because of the blind egoism of a car driver, because of the unwillingness out of respect for the life of another human being to possibly spend a few seconds of life in patience.

Mosana spent a day in the hospital, she was in great pain and had bandages all over. But two days later she was back on her bike, ready to train. She got the final green light for the Olympics, and if all goes well, she will be on the start line in Tokyo in a few weeks.

She will not win the Olympic road race, just finishing it will be difficult. She probably won't have a successful career in international cycling either. The fact that she has gone this far has certainly cost much more strength than a great victory of a professional athlete.

But to have gone this way is an incomparably greater success, which will only make it possible for other young female athletes from Africa to take the next steps. With her path, she can encourage many young girls to stand up for their goals and ideas and to overcome the barriers of social constraints and poverty.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for you, Mosana.


__________________

Henok Mulubrhan steps up to the WorldTour in 2022

https://www.africanews.com/2021/07/13/h ... r-in-2022/

Last updated: 8 hours ago
‌
We are delighted to announce that Henok Mulubrhan has signed his first professional contract and will join the Team Qhubeka NextHash (www.TeamQhubeka.com) WorldTour team from 1 January, 2022.

The 21-year-old from Asmara, Eritrea, makes the progression following two years spent with Team Qhubeka’s UCI Continental team based in Lucca, Italy.

2021 has proved to be an excellent season, so far, which has included placing second at Giro del Medio Brenta, third place on stage two of the under 23 Giro d’Italia where he also placed 17th overall on the general classification and a hugely impressive sixth at Giro dell'Appennino, among others.

Mulubrhan has also raced this season with our WorldTour team, as a member of our squad that competed at Trofeo Andratx and Trofeo Calvia.

He joins an illustrious list of riders including the likes of Daniel Teklehaimanot, Merhawi Kudus, Nicholas Dlamini, Ryan Gibbons, Stefan de Bod, Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg and others, that have taken the step from our team to the WorldTour and gone on to compete consistently at the very highest level.

Henok Mulubrhan

I am very happy to receive my first professional contract. It was always a dream of mine to be a professional, from the age of 17 when I was racing with the Eritrean team. I need to thank my family for their support, particularly my father and my uncle. My Father always believed in me, he told everyone I will be a professional one day and supported me a lot.

He came to every race I did and if he could get a visa, I know he would want to come to all my races in Europe too. My uncle did a lot to help me financially in my career, even now he still helps me. I need to thank them a lot but also to the whole Eritrean community, my fans, who always support and encourage me.

To the team, I am very grateful to the Qhubeka Continental team for the opportunity. With them, my dream changed from just being a dream to becoming a realistic goal. They gave me opportunity to experience racing in Europe and to increase my level. Thank you to Kevin Campbell and Daniele Nieri and all the Continental team staff and also to my teammates who helped me. Last year I lived, trained and raced with guys like Natnael Tesfatsion and Leonardo Marchiori. They turned pro from this team so it gave me a lot of motivation to train hard and keep believing I can do it too.

Now I start from the beginning again, and it is time for a new dream as a professional. I want to start a grand tour, that is my next goal and after, in a few years my family dream is to see me win a stage in a grand tour. This is what I will work towards.

Douglas Ryder – Team Principal

One of the greatest pleasures that I have is seeing young riders taking the opportunity to establish themselves in our Continental team and then earning their spot to ride on the highest level with our WorldTour team. That is exactly what our team is about, to create hope and opportunity for a successful career as a professional cyclist and continue to inspire hope in others that their dreams can come true.

Henok’s hugely impressed all of us; he’s not only ridden so well with our Continental team but also spent some time racing successfully with the WorldTour team. His hard work and adaptation to international racing is showing incredible improvements which we hope will go from strength to strength, and we look forward to playing our part in that journey to see him realise his dreams.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Team Qhubeka NextHash.
Media Contact:

Jean Smyth

Head of Communications

Email: [email protected]

Mobile: +27 63 470 1710 or +31 625 739 033

About Team Qhubeka NextHash:

Team Qhubeka NextHash is a purpose-led, high-performance team, fighting to win on the world's biggest stage, to inspire hope and create opportunity. Founded in 2007, Team Qhubeka NextHash (formerly NTT Pro Cycling) became the first-ever African cycling team to gain a UCI WorldTour license, in 2016.

We achieved our first major win in 2013 when Gerald Ciolek won Milan-San Remo, one of the five Monuments of cycling. We have competed in six Tour de France’s and notched up 7 stage wins, with Mark Cavendish wearing the coveted Yellow Jersey at the 2016 Tour de France.

We are a multicultural, diverse team with bases in South Africa, the Netherlands and Italy. There are 19 nationalities represented across our World Tour and continental feeder team rosters. Our focus on developing African cycling has resulted in more than 55 riders from the African continent be given the opportunity to race on the world stage, since the team's inception.

We race to help people to move forward with bicycles through our relationship with Qhubeka Charity. Through our work with Qhubeka, we have contributed to the distribution of over 30 000 bicycles in communities in South Africa.

About Qhubeka:



Qhubeka is a charity that moves people forward with bicycles. People earn bicycles through our programmes, improving their access to schools, clinics and jobs.

A bicycle is a tool that helps people to travel faster and further, and to carry more. In the face of extreme and persistent poverty, bicycles can change lives by helping to address socioeconomic challenges at the most basic level – helping people to get where they need to go.

Eritrean National Team! ኣብ ቤተክርስትያን እንዳ ስላሴ (ዕዳጋ ሓሙስ) Ermias Measho


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ሃገራዊት ጋንታ ኤርትራ ትሕቲ 23 ሎሚ ኣማስያ ናብ ከተማ ባህርዳር ኢትዮጵያ ኣትያ። ጽብቕ ዕድል ንምነየላ።










The Eritrean National football team arrived in BAHR- DAR city. The team was accorded a warm welcome, by the people and administration of the city. The Mayor of Bahir Dar, Dr. Dres Sehalu and his cabinet hosted a dinner in honor of the team. Drar Fessahaye
Embassy of The State of Eritrea Addis Ababa: @ERIEMBAET

DeqemHare









Welcome, to Massawa



ከባቢ ቁሸት (እንዳ ጀርመን) Ermias Measho






በለስ ዓድና! ኣኽርያ - ከባቢ እንዳ-ሳዕሪ Via Solomon Tesfamichael



በለስ ንቀደም ክንብለኩም! Via ERI SKATO

Visited yesterday the @RTS in Geneva to be interviewed by the producer of the famous music radio show @republikalakuta of @Couleur3, about current (tselaika) and future musical projects. The interview will be aired in September
Faytinga: @DahabFaidTinga


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Was honoured to receive the Ambassadors designate to Eritrea of Switzerland (H.E. Christian Winter) and of Norway - (H.E. Therese Loken Gheziel Eikeland) today. Used the opportunity to thank and update them on our important partnerships.
Ama Sande: @AmaSande

ኡዛ ላብቶበይ ሸይጠ ቦቲ ገንዘብ ገይረ ብሽግለታ ዓዲገ ልእኖይ ትግራይ አው ዓለም ሽማ ኸፍ ኸፍ ከብሎ ይማባፃዕ እኒኤኹ።

FT Dairy Products and Promising Prospects

By: Mussie Efrem

https://shabait.com/amp/2021/07/14/ft-d ... ssion=true

July 14, 2021



At a farm in Daeropaulos, Central Region, Mrs. Freweini is using her over 27 years’ worth of knowledge to empower young girls. The going has not always been easy, yet she has built a reputable brand in Eritrea.

Dairy farming is an enterprising business in Eritrea today, in part due to a substantial demand for milk and its associated products. Starting off in Elabered, Halhale, and Adi Sog'do as a preserve of Italian farmers during the colonial period, the business has grown to become a major source of income for many Eritreans. For nearly twenty years, FT Dairy, a family owned business, has been producing traditionally spiced and smoked [deleted] and velvety cheese cream, best known by its Italian name Panna.

Returning home in Asmara in 1991 after 14 years in combat, Mrs. Freweini Tesfayohannes, a former freedom fighter, and a nurse by profession, then in her early thirties, founded the company. She turned her backyard and kitchen space of the house she’d rented then, into the seedlings that gave life to FT Dairy Products. At the time, her co-parent Mr. Temesghen Tekie was away on a national campaign to eradicate blindness caused by cataracts. In 1992, following the birth of their first child, the demand for a daily supply of milk for the baby took a toll on them. This saw them buy one cow to supplement the domestic supply of milk while selling the rest to boost their meagre.



Their enthusiasm turned their kitchen into a laboratory, where Mrs. Freweini learned and practiced milk alterations. Her husband, Mr. Temesghen, a Pharmacist by profession, was always a big helping hand as his knowledge of science and chemistry assisted his wife’s curiosity in understanding milk and the science in milk products. They read, studied, and practiced hard. Their limited knowledge of agriculture, did not deter them from thinking big. Mrs. Freweini figured out that they could do better than they had been with only one cow and proposed breeding cattle as a business idea to her husband, an idea he supported.

In the beginning, the couple faced big challenges. They bought six cows, but only one was lactating and it died after a short while. They also faced opposition from the community. In 1996, the couple started the project as a cottage industry at the courtyard in their house. However, their courtyard was not big enough to accommodate many animals. A year later, Mrs. Freweini applied and enrolled in the Demobilization Program, which was aimed at assisting freedom fighters in their new ventures. Under the program, Mrs. Freweini quit her nursing profession and was assisted to start a mini dairy farm.

With a loaned initial capital, Freweini built up their first cattle cottage in Adi Sog'do. As the business picked, the couple was able to pay off the loans while selling milk in the neighborhood. Initially, Mrs. Freweini would make deliveries on a bike, however, as production increased, Lazza Farm Products started selling the milk to Asmara Dairy Factory.



In 2002, Freweini made more investments. At the time, she purchased Holstein cows from Elabered Dairy Farm. As time went by, she got better and better in cattle breeding and milk production. Over the course of time, she attended both short-and long-term training on farming, food (milk) processing, and other professions relevant to her business in Eritrea and abroad in Kenya, China, and the USA. At the same time, she represented her business in several conventions under the umbrella of the African Women Agribusiness Network (AWAN). A major breakthrough for the business was realized, when the Ministry of Agriculture gave support and linkages.

In 2006, the plant was officially recognized as a milk-producing and processing plant. At that time, the company stopped selling milk and begun producing milk alterations for the market. As there was no mechanization at the time, most of the work was then done manually using traditional methods for many of the products. In the process, the National Animal and Plant Health Laboratory, under the Ministry of Agriculture, kept monitoring regular safety control tests to ensure the quality of FT milk products was upheld. In 2012, Lazza Farm Products underwent major changes introducing small-scale types of machinery. The plant was expanded on a 500-meter piece of land, detached from the farmland. The transition was overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and PUM.



Since that time, FT has grown substantially. Starting with 350 liters of milk a day from their own cows and the 150 liters of milk from other farmers, the company now produces 1000 to 1200 pieces of 250-milliliter yogurt packs and above 10kg [deleted] daily. In addition to yogurt and [deleted], they produce different types of cheese and cream. Due to its consistency in standards and quality, Lazza Farm Products was recently awarded a certificate recognition for its consistency in the quality of products.

The farm has extended to include cows, horses, and over a hundred sheep. Currently, there are at least ten full-time employees and over two dozen temporary employees. Mrs. Freweyni says her vision is to make milk products available in the whole nation, at the lowest price possible. The Jeebna, for example, one of the earliest Lazza Farm Products cheese products, is widely appreciated in the lowlands of Eritrea. The price of milk in Eritrea is determined, by the cost of animal feed. According to Mr. Temesghen, the company tries to solve this by making animal feed from byproducts that have nutritional value. The company has plans to make significant contributions, to the national food security program.

Despite many false pitfalls faced by the company, Mrs. Freweini hopes to advance to modern sealing and packaging systems. In many ways, Mrs. Freweini’s life and success story best represent the spirit of a typical Eritrea woman. She was a young woman who devoted her youth and life to liberation, women’s emancipation, and social transformation. Then, as a mother, she worked tirelessly to sustain her family. And as a businesswoman, she now puts two principals at the core of everything: family and society. The reason why FT products have been loved for 20 years now is not only because of their quality, but their fair pricing too. Mrs. Freweini makes her product with so much care, as for her milk production has always been about ‘family’. One key pillar in the company is gender equality and empowerment. At the milk plant, Mrs. Freweini continues to empower young women, educating and sharing valuable lessons on milk production with them.



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1 million tree seedlings are being planted, at the outskirts of Asmara.

Definitely, the smartest "digital" of all "digitals"!

Digital Weyane wrote: ↑

14 Jul 2021, 16:42

ኡዛ ላብቶበይ ሸይጠ ቦቲ ገንዘብ ገይረ ብሽግለታ ዓዲገ ልእኖይ ትግራይ አው ዓለም ሽማ ኸፍ ኸፍ ከብሎ ይማባፃዕ እኒኤኹ።

Zmeselo wrote: ↑

14 Jul 2021, 17:54

Definitely, the smartest "digital" of all "digitals"!

Digital Weyane wrote: ↑

14 Jul 2021, 16:42

ኡዛ ላብቶበይ ሸይጠ ቦቲ ገንዘብ ገይረ ብሽግለታ ዓዲገ ልእኖይ ትግራይ አው ዓለም ሽማ ኸፍ ኸፍ ከብሎ ይማባፃዕ እኒኤኹ።

Yes, bro, and the most reasonable person of the digital liars out there!

Temt wrote: ↑

14 Jul 2021, 18:04

Zmeselo wrote: ↑

14 Jul 2021, 17:54

Definitely, the smartest "digital" of all "digitals"!

Digital Weyane wrote: ↑

14 Jul 2021, 16:42

ኡዛ ላብቶበይ ሸይጠ ቦቲ ገንዘብ ገይረ ብሽግለታ ዓዲገ ልእኖይ ትግራይ አው ዓለም ሽማ ኸፍ ኸፍ ከብሎ ይማባፃዕ እኒኤኹ።

Yes, bro, and the most reasonable person of the digital liars out there!

If all chegaru had similar mindset, instead of rob & loot mentality, they'd have gone far & would've been a blessing as a neighbour.

"DIGITAL WEYANE", FOR CHGRAY KILLIL PREZ!

Who'se with me?