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Biniam Ghirmay wins the 2022 Trofeo d'Alcudía.

MEET BINIAM GIRMAY – ERITREAN SPRINTER, HUMBLE CHAMPION

Biniam Girmay is arguably the most talented Ertirean rider in the bunch right now. The sprinter and Classics rider has a bright future ahead of him.

BY JOSÉ BEEN

https://cyclingtips.com/2022/01/meet-bi ... -champion/

PHOTOGRAPHY BY COR VOS

JANUARY 28, 2022

Biniam Girmay Hailu is only 21 years old but he is quickly rising through the ranks of pro cycling. With his silver medal in the U23 road race at the World Championships in Leuven last year, he was the first rider of color to step onto the podium. He returned to Eritrea a hero.

His 2022 season, his first full year in the WorldTour with Belgian outfit Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, got off to a flying start with a win in Mallorca https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/tr ... 022/result on Thursday.

Girmay comes across as a humble man, an old soul too.

In the family we all look like old men,

he says with a smile.

He comes from Asmara, the capital of Eritrea in East Africa. His father is an avid cycling fan but little Biniam’s interest was in football first. He was part of the school team.

Cycling is one of the sports in my country,

he tells me over Zoom from a team training camp in Spain.

Everyone loves the sport including me but when I was 10 or 11 years old, I preferred football. My older brother was cycling by then and then my dad gently pushed me towards the sport and a race.

Girmay smiles shyly at the memory of his childhood.

There are races every weekend in Eritrea and around Asmara once every two months,

he says.

When I started cycling, I was about 13 years old. My brother gave me his bike and we went for a little coffee ride. That’s when I gradually started to feel the passion.

My dad then bought me a new bike. I remember it was very expensive. My dad owns a small carpentry business and I joined him sometimes. It was a 10-kilometre ride to work only but it sparked the motivation.

Girmay at the Innsbruck World Championships in 2018 where he came in 15th in the junior time trial.

From Eritrea, Girmay moved to the World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle, Switzerland when he was a junior rider. The WCC is an institute founded by the UCI to help riders from countries without a strong established cycling culture or fewer economic opportunities. From their home base adjacent to the UCI headquarters, the junior and elite teams get a varied program of international races.

Girmay made waves as a junior, as one of the only riders able to beat Remco Evenepoel in his dominant season as a second-year junior in 2018. That season Evenepoel only lost 10 races out of 30 individual starts.

It was very difficult coming from African races to Europe,

Girmay remembers.

I joined the WCC team as a first-year junior and that helped me improve so much. It’s important to get that experience and to be able to learn everything about cycling.

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RELATED: Eritrea's first ever Road Worlds medal
READ MORE https://cyclingtips.com/2021/09/up-and- ... lds-medal/

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His junior results include a top 15 at the World Championships, and podium places and a stage win in the renowned junior stage races GP Ruebliland in Switzerland and Aubel-Thimister-Stavelot in the Belgian Ardennes. Girmay also finished in the top five of two prestigious one-day junior races in Italy. The big WorldTour teams, however, were not lining up to sign him to their main or development teams.

He therefore stayed for another year with the World Cycling Centre team. He took stage wins in the two biggest African races, Tour du Rwanda and Tropicale Amissa Bongo in Gabon. He rode and finished the Tour de l’Avenir with a fifth place in the final mountain stage.

The top 10 on that stage https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/to ... 9/stage-10 reads like a who’s who of the most talented riders. Seven of them moved to a WorldTour team the year after but Girmay eventually signed a four-year pro contract with the smallest of the French second-division teams, Delko, and based himself in Provence.


Girmay on the Mur de Fayence during the French stage race, Tour des Alpes Maritimes et du Var, in 2020.

It’s not easy for African riders to get onto the radar of the bigger, Europe-based teams. According to Girmay, it’s actually getting more difficult now. He regrets that fellow African riders currently have even fewer options to make it to Europe than he had in 2018.

There is so much passion in young riders from Eritrea but if you want to become pro you need to be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right moment,

he explains.

You need to be seen. There are many local races and only a few big races like Rwanda and Gabon. That’s the moment to show yourself to European teams.

If we want more Black riders the European Continental teams need to start watching African cycling more. It’s all about being seen and getting a chance in Europe.

It takes a lot of investments from yourself and your family. It’s not a cheap sport with bikes, spares, etc. My dad paid for my first bike. The UCI invested a lot in African cycling but I think they stopped the junior and U23 program due to COVID. Even Qhubeka stopped because of less money. I regret to say it’s even more difficult for African riders now.

Girmay on his way to 11th place in the uphill finish in the 2021 Tour of Poland.

When it became clear the Delko team would fold in 2021, Belgian WorldTour team Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert picked up the Eritrean hopeful and offered him a four-year deal. By then his fame had risen and other teams like Trek-Segafredo, UAE Emirates, and Deceuninck-Quickstep were eager to sign him.

His debut in the Tour of Poland was a promising one and after only a month on the team, Girmay rewarded the faith put in him with a win, at the UCI 1.1 Classic Grand Besançon Doubs.



Girmay married young and is father to daughter Liela who turns one in March. He is a humble man, a man of faith. He knows what he wants but completely lacks the boastful nature a man with his sporting talent often has.

It’s not just me – in my country they don’t like people who boast,

he says,

They like the quiet and easy life. I know where I come from. It’s important not to forget that. In the race I am different though. I am totally crazy. It’s the job I need to do. If I feel good, I tell my teammates, and if I don’t, I tell them too. Inside the race I am in focus and a different guy. I just want to win.

I know what I am good at better than last year already,

he says about his progress.

In the junior ranks when I was back in Eritrea, we only had one-day races. Then you have to be smart and position well. You have to be a Classics rider. We only had one chance [to show ourselves] in the one-day races. I lost often but also learned a lot and won a lot in the junior ranks and with Delko.

Girmay’s big dream, besides winning a Tour de France stage, is riding the Classics and most of all Paris-Roubaix, a race he followed since he was young. In 2019 he finished 48th in the Paris-Roubaix Espoirs, as a first-year U23. He wants to get better at one-day races and knows what he needs to do to make that happen.

My coach at WCC, Jean Jacques, always said there are many good Eritrean cyclists but they are not good in positioning,

he says.

They don’t know how to win. He told me: ‘I know one thing: if you want to stay in cycling, focus on the Classics’. In the beginning I need to learn a lot. There is a huge difference between junior/U23 and WorldTour but when I see myself in a race now, I think I am not bad. I think it’s in me.

Girmay will make his Grand Tour debut this season. Before starting the Giro d’Italia in May he will focus on races in March, most notably Paris-Nice and Milan-San Remo. The goal is to use his strong positioning and sprint skills in the finals. At Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert he gets a dedicated group of riders around him to be as fresh as possible in those finals.

I need someone to position me in the last five kilometres,

he says.

In all my sprint top 10s I come from behind when someone dropped me at five kilometres to go. Then I pass everyone in the final. I need someone to get me from five to the final kilometre, to position me better. For the future we work with three or four guys in the same races with me and fight for the podium or the win.

That work seems to be paying off already. On Thursday, in Girmay’s second race of the season, his Hungarian teammate Barnabas Peak delivered Girmay exactly where he needed to be in the Trofeo Alcudía. He beat renowned sprinters like Giacomo Nizzolo, Michael Matthews, and Pascal Ackermann to take the win.

As well as being a fast sprinter, Girmay is also a rider suited to the Ardennes Classics, races that are traditionally very important for his Wallonia-based team. This year he won’t be in either Liège-Bastogne-Liège or the Flèche Wallonne but the team might send him to Amstel Gold Race.

And speaking of that team, it seems Girmay feels right at home with Intermarché.

It’s really a family,

he says.

The atmosphere is great and everyone is very close. They are always here to help me and support me. I spend most of the year alone in Europe. I live in San Marino with my friends but when I race, I am alone. The staff really care about me. I don’t have words for it. I am just grateful to be here.

Girmay moved from Italy to San Marino with his countrymen Natnael Berhane, Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Trek-Segafredo), and Natnael Tesfatsion (Drone Hopper) this winter. The older Eritrean riders help him with advice, just as they did when he was still a junior.

Berhane really taught me a lot about riding and racing in Europe,

Girmay says.

We all come from Asmara and we are close friends. Before I moved to Europe, they gave me all sorts of advice like learning languages. If I need anything they help me. They are really good guys. I still learn from them and they are my family away from home.

Cycling is hugely popular in Eritrea. It is a war-ravaged country and Eritreans fled the country and settled around the world as refugees. The colorful Eritrean flag can be seen at nearly every race and the support for their riders is enormous.

I have become a bit more famous after the [2021] World Championships [where he was second in the U23 road race] but I don’t really like the spotlight and the media,

he says.

I want to have a ‘tranquilo’ life but after the World Championships there was a lot of attention,

he says with a smile.

There’s another Worlds in a few years that might be even more significant.

The World Championships in Rwanda in 2025 mean a lot [for African cycling],

Girmay says.

The moment they announced it, everyone was becoming really excited. Even now we see a lot of young riders starting in the sport.

The main key is to find a team in Europe and be noticed. I am still young but an example in Black cycling. There will be a Black world champion, I am sure, but I don’t know if that’s me.

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[Zmeselo]

College of Education has conferred Msc. Degrees to 115 postgraduate students in its 15th commencement held within COVID-19 guidelilines, today. Fields of study include: Mathematics, Science, English and Social Sciences.
Yemane G. Meskel: @hawelti

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MOA's Annual Evaluation Report indicates extensive implementation of water conservation programmes over 23K hectares in 2021; adequate national cereal harvest; & substantial growth in horticultural produce among key benchmarks. Focus will remain, on yield/ha for farming households.

Yemane G. Meskel: @hawelti



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Together in partnership with Eritrea. UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Director a.i. @ndyanabangi, @UnfpaEritrea and UN Team. Collective efforts and strong collaboration on the ground towards Global Goals.



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Must harmonize divided planet, says GLF youth leader Salina Abraham

Landscape News Editor

https://news.globallandscapesforum.org/ ... a-abraham/

31 January 2018


Salina Abraham at the Economic and Social Council 2018 session. Youth Forum. U.N. Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Speech delivered https://news.globallandscapesforum.org/ ... onference/ by Salina Abraham, president of the International Forestry Students’ Association and Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) youth leader at 2018 U.N. ECOSOC Youth Forum in New York.


I am a privileged individual – there is nothing special about me, who I am, what I do, what I have experienced. I have grown up with comfort, clean water, a sense of peace and security, and both the access and the resources to obtain a quality education. I am privileged.

And yet, still, for a good part of my life, I stumbled around with a sense of unease, feeling discontent. You see, my parents, like an increasing number of people, were refugees. They left Eritrea in a time of war and took a winding path before eventually raising me here in the United States. Yet, I knew every day of my life that something was wrong with this story.

Surely, this couldn’t be the last page. Was this the happy ending? Was I the happy ending?

The answer is no. No I am not. This is not enough. This is not sustainable development, and it is certainly far from resilience.

Sustainable development is not having to leave your home, family, and culture behind to provide your children with an adequate life. Sustainable development is not millions of Syrians fleeing war only to often be met with disdain and rejection. It’s not having to conceal your language or culture in an attempt to conform, only to never truly be accepted. It is not this increasingly fragmented and polarized world.

Sustainable development is having the resources, access, security and tools to create new opportunities wherever you choose to call home.

You see, resilience is absent in a world that perpetuates ever increasing inequalities and ecological footprints. Our systems cannot keep alienating people and transgressing planetary boundaries. We cannot continue to undermine communities and consume more than the earth can sustainably provide.

And that is why I am so incredibly grateful that we are all here today – government representatives, policy makers, youth activists – we are committed to building more sustainable and resilient communities, everywhere and for everyone.

I want to take the next few minutes to share a few things I know about young people and what it takes to achieve transformational change.

Transformative change, an awakening, does not often happen in the classroom or in the office – it happens in the afternoon debates, the late night conversations that spark ideas, and the unadulterated drive of a tribe of young people behind a cause.

I’d like to draw upon my experiences working with the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA). IFSA is a globally organized and locally operating students association that connects, empowers, and educates forest science students. And as you can see, we also engage in formal U.N. processes. The work that we do fills a much-needed gap, by providing skills and knowledge currently lacking in formal education and pathways for collective action towards our vision of a world that appreciates forests.

To that end, we raise awareness of the sustainable development goals to young people, many of whom do not know them, and the varied ways that forests contribute to the 2030 agenda beyond number 15 – life on land. Let me share with you a few of them:

Forests are the quintessential global commons and the backbones of resilient ecosystems.

Forest products tackle poverty by producing income for surrounding communities. They provide carbon capture and storage to combat climate change. They play a significant role in safeguarding the human right to water while also being home to most of the world’s biodiversity. They host stores of indigenous knowledge…and their sustainable management can provide pathways towards gender equality, zero hunger, good health, sustainable production and consumption, and more items than I have time to speak on today.

To frame it more technically, they are indispensable for the achievement of the SDGs, the realization of the Sendai Framework, and the implementation of the new urban and territorial agenda.

But I’d like us to stop here – what can we learn from this?

Our world is not as simple as we would like to think. Our world is filled with complex interdependent systems. The good news is that we realize this and we’re all working towards a common goal. Our problem, we’re often doing it independently.

There is a need for holistic approaches produced by communities and stakeholders at all levels. And it can only happen when we’re all present, all talking, in the same room. I have the great pleasure of working with the Global Landscapes Forum, the world’s largest science-led platform for sustainable land use which seeks to do just that. We are breaking down barriers, connecting ideas, and accelerating progress through a movement that puts communities first in addressing landscape level issues.

As the youth coordinator to the Forum, my experience has shown me that we don’t have enough time to leave a vast majority of our population unengaged and unsupported. I’ve seen how the Youth in Landscapes Initiative transformed once eager students to young powerful leaders who have returned to their communities to tackle rural migration, promote climate smart agriculture, increase market access for producers, or become policy advocates.

There is an incredible amount of untapped potential in the young people of the world – those of us in the room, only represent a fraction, our constituencies, only represent a fraction, but we’re not here to change a fraction of the world.

So how do we reach them?

How do we continue to igniting small fires in each member of society? There are a few strategies to spread our work and I find they start with support, listen, and engage.

The first, support. There is a great quote that states

Most dreams die a slow death. They’re conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born.

Self-organized youth groups transform moments of passion into places for action. They actively fight against cynicism and provide the tools and resources for new ideas to thrive. We can’t underestimate the power of community.

We need to actively support the formation of youth-led entities and youth-driven areas of work to begin to claim inclusive development. It is not enough to hand pick one individual, one spokesperson or one leader for a seat at the table – it is about awakening and engaging all young people through community and supporting the mechanisms of adequate facilitation and representation through legally mandated and designated spaces.

In sum, actively support youth led organizations – they not only light fires but keep them alive.

The second, Listen – Once the communities are built and the mechanisms for representation are in place. Listen. Use marginalized groups and young people as indicators to whether we are achieving sustainable and resilient communities. Because when our communities are flourishing, young people – young women and girls, will be thriving.

The third, and the most often heard, is engage and include young people in decision making and implementation. Let’s be clear – you are not handing them a privilege, but conceding to their right. Make no mistake, young people will carry on the work whether they are included or not. And to many, this right is a responsibility bound to their hearts. They are not going to stand and wait for a seat at the table. We’re already here and out in the world dreaming, advocating and creating.

But let me be honest – this isn’t ideal, we don’t want to and cannot do it alone. We don’t want to fight for every partnership, every approval, every dollar or every seat. We don’t want to forever be sidelined in another room – having our solutions forever labelled youth and our projects touted as surprising accomplishments. I don’t want to forever be here, repeating the same things, sounding like a broken, uninspired record.

Engage. Member states we are waiting on you. If these groups that are already changing the world are not meaningfully engaged, you’re missing out on a chance to accelerate change.

And though I’ve found these strategies useful, they won’t be successful if we don’t hold and believe in this principle, truth.

Society benefits from an ever-expanding room of empowered stakeholders, an ever-expanding conversation of people fighting for change. It’s time to break down the divisions – across sectors, across age – to engage in the difficult conversations that can transform our world.

We’ve made the mistake of sectioning off our planet, ever dividing it by nation, fragmented by urban and rural areas, segmented into forest or agricultural areas. We have fractured ecosystems and inadvertently denied our communities the right to live in a natural harmony.

But don’t be fooled, natural harmony is messier than we’d like to believe.

Natural harmony involves fiery debates that run through and transform everything in their path. It can mean barren rock and rubble before witnessing a rebirth of early approaches alongside a blossoming of the new. Natural harmony is a stirring, buzzing incessant noise of different perspectives that all exist to reveal to us that life is flourishing.

It may be noisy, messy and complex in an ever expanding room – but I assure you, it is exactly where we need to be.

I have said this before, we don’t have enough time so let’s not waste our time here.

Greet each other, meet each other and use every ounce of your energy to make the most of this opportunity. Not for ourselves, but for those who cannot be here, our brothers and sisters, who don’t have this privilege.

Together, let’s make privilege a forgotten word.

[Zmeselo]

As part of the UN regional directors visit to Eritrea to launch the Eritrea & @UNinEritrea Dev Cooperation Framework, Mama Keita Director ECA Sub-Reg Office for Eastern Africa had a constructive discussion on key issues with Dr. Giorgis Tesfamichael, Min of Finance & National Dev
Ghideon Musa: @GhideonMusa



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ኣንጎላ ፡- ስእላዊ መግለጺ "ክተት ኣብ መድረኻዊ ግድነት" ኣብ ትሕቲ ዝብል ቴማ፡ ንኤርትራውያን ነበርቲ ከተማ ልዋንዳ ብኣምባሳደር ኤርትራ ኣብ ሃገረ ደቡብ ኣፍሪቓ ኣቶ ሳልሕ ዑመር ዝካየድ ዘሎ ህዝባዊ ሰሚናር!

Mr Dessale Tekleab Berhane, is the new Resident Council General of the State of Eritrea to Angola.
Ghebrhiwet Mahari




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On the occasion of the 73rd #RepublicDayIndia, Embassy hosted a Reception in Asmara as part of #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav. Eritrean dignitaries, diplomatic corps, Indian community members and friends of India attended. Ambassador, enumerated the developments in India-Eritrea relations.
India in Eritrea: @IndiaEritrea

[Zmeselo]

Land of Peace, Harmony & Tranquility!













Courtesy- Hadelibi♡: @Ternafi & @willmwhiteman

[Zmeselo]

ኣብ ዞባ ጋሽ-ባርካ፡ ንትግባረ መደባት ማሕበራዊ ድሕነት ዝግምግም ርክብ ተኻዪዱ።

BY ADMIN

https://eritreanmedianetwork.org/%e1%8a ... 4d9f0d2361

JANUARY 29, 2022

ኣብ ጨንፈር ሚኒስትሪ ዕዮን ማሕበራዊ ድሕነትን – ሓላፊ ኣሃዱ ማሕበራዊ ድሕነት ኣቶ ተስፋገብርኤል ገብረስላሴ ኣብ ዘቕረቦ ጸብጻብ፡ ኣብ 16 ንኡስ ዞባታት ንዝርከቡ ጽጉማት ኣካላት ሕብረተ-ሰብ ብሓፈሻ፡ ስድራ ስዉኣት ድማ ብፍላይ ንምሕጋዝ መጽናዕቲ ከምእተገብረን ንትግባረ ናብ ዝምልከቶ ኣካል ከምዝቐረበንገሊጹ።

ብመሰረት’ቲ ጸብጻብ፡ ደበስ ንስድራ ስዉኣትን ደገፍ ንተኣለይቲ ስንኩላንን ዘጠቓልል ልዕሊ 35 ሚልዮን ናቕፋ ከምእተኸፍለ፣ ኮሚተ ምርግጋጽ መሰላት ቈልዑን ምውጋድ ጎዳእቲ ልምድታትን ከምዝቘመ፣ ንግዳያት ማሕበራዊ ሕሰም ከከም ቀዳምነታቱገንዘባዊ ሓገዝ ከምእተገብረ፣ 207 ጽጉማትወገናት ብኣስታት 2 ሚልዮን ናቕፋ ከምእተጣየሱ፣ ንጽጉማት ተመሃሮ ዋጋ ልዕሊ 200 ሽሕ ናቕፋ ሓገዝ ናውቲ ትምህርቲ ከምእተገብረ፣ ምስ ኤች.ኣይ.ቪ/ኤይድስ ንዝነብሩ ድማ ኣስታት 400 ሽሕ ናቕፋ ከምእተዓደለ፡ ክፍለጥ ተኻኢሉ’ሎ።

ኣመሓዳሪ ዞባ ጋሽ-ባርካ ኣምባሳደር ማሕሙድ ዓሊ ሕሩይ ኣብ ዘስመዖ ቃል፡ ምቅላል ማሕበረ-ቁጠባዊ ሽግራት ንዝተወሰኑ ኣካላት መንግስቲ ጥራይ ዝግደፍ ዕማም ስለዘይኮነ፡ ኣብ ርእሲ’ቲ ብሚኒስትሪ ዕዮን ማሕበራዊ ድሕነትን ዝሰላሰል ስራሕ፡ ኣበርክቶ ሕብረተ-ሰብን ካልኦት ኣካላት መንግስትን ክዓዝዝ ኣተሓሳሲቡ።

ሚኒስተር ዕዮን ማሕበራዊ ድሕነትን ወ/ሮ ልኡል ገብረኣብ ኣብ ዝሃበቶ መዛዘሚ ቃል፡ ዝተፈላለየ ጸገማትን ስንክልናን ዘለዎም ዜጋታት ዝሕገዙሉን ሰሪሖም ነብሶም ዝኽእሉሉን ባይታ ንምፍጣር ዝካየድ ዘሎ ጻዕሪ ንምዕዋት፡ ኩለን ኣብ ምርግጋጽ ማሕበራዊ ድሕነት ዝነጥፋ ኮሚተታት ክሕይላን ብኣድማዕነት ክነጥፋን ብምዝኽኻር፡ ምምሕዳራት ኣብ ምልላይ ሓገዝ ዘድልዮም ዜጋታት ዕቱባት ክዀና ኣተሓሳሲባ።



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Extensive water and soil conservation activities

LOCAL NEWS

https://shabait.com/2022/01/29/extensiv ... eaPrevails



Asmara, 29 January 2022– The Ministry of Agriculture reported that in 2021 extensive water and soil conservation activities have been conducted across the country and that registered 40% increase, from that of 2020.

The report was made at an activity assessment meeting, conducted on 27 and 28 January.

According to the report presented at the meeting, extensive water and soil conservation activities have been conducted especially in the Central, Southern and Northern Red Sea Regions including construction of terraces and water diversion schemes as well as planting tree seedlings.

The report also included that with the ample distribution of rainfall, commendable agricultural activities have been conducted.

Regarding vegetables and fruits farming, the report indicated that commendable activities have been conducted in the Northern Red Sea and the Central regions.

The participants conducted extensive discussion including on the activities conducted in creating market and loan opportunities, research activities, development of animal green feed, poultry and bee farming and adopted various recommendations.





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"ክልተ ኣፍቂሩ" ሓዳስ መጽሓፍ ታሪኽ ህይወት ገዲም ሳሕላዊ ስነ ጥበበኛ እስቲፋኖስ ኣብርሃ ( ዘማች) ትማሊ ምሸት ሰዓት ሽዱሽተ ኣብ ኣዳራሽ ሃኮሰኤ ብክብ ዝበለ ድምቀት ተመሪቓ።
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