Local Diversity Drives Global Impact (OP-ED)

By Selamawit Kifle, Blue Nile Children’s Organization

Like many who call the Rainier Valley home, I feel as if I live in two communities: The one where I wake up each morning and the one where my web of cultural and personal connections links me to. Nothing represents this as clearly as my work with the Blue Nile Children’s Organization.

The Blue Nile Children’s Organization supports more than 70 orphan children, offers health education classes and will provide primary care for children, and new mothers at a local clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We partner with organizations to strengthen Ethiopian communities in Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa and align our initiatives with universities and research programs to help train medical personal and enhance the services available to Ethiopian families.

Here in the Rainier Valley, we partner with Adey Abeba, which hosts Ethiopian cooking classes that benefit the Blue Nile Children’s Organization.

Beyond the difference we’re making in the lives of women and children in Ethiopia, one thing that strikes me as remarkable about the our organization is that we’re just one of many organizations across Washington state that are working to make a difference in the world.

This is why we are proud to be a member of Global Washington, an association of more than 100 organizations across Washington state working to advance global development. Global Washington is a regional group and one that embodies the unique richness and commitment of local organizations making a positive impact in the world.

Members range from the very largest in size, like Microsoft, PATH and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to dozens of smaller organizations like the Blue Nile Children’s Organization. Global Washington provides a wide range of programs and services that include training, information-sharing, events and access to sources of information that are helping to strengthen capacity, forging new relationships and creating new opportunities for collaboration.

Global Washington also is a powerful voice for global development. Just last month, at the request of U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, Global Washington shared policy recommendations for improving the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance.

Sen. Cantwell remarked not only on the importance of the global development sector to the state but also the important perspective and insight that Global Washington and its members – like the Blue Nile Children’s Organization – have to offer. This perspective builds on the diversity of our state, including our own neighborhood, whose diversity is exemplified by the more than 60 languages spoken here.

Those of us who live and work in the Rainier Valley benefit every day from the vibrancy of cultures that make our neighborhood one of the most diverse communities in the country. The true benefit extends further – to other continents and countries – through the work of organizations like the Blue Nile Children’s Organization and Global Washington. By working together, we’re making a difference both at home and around the world.

The mission of the Rainier Valley-based Blue Nile Children’s Organization is focused on the greatest needs of Ethiopia’s children and their mothers, including orphans in foster care, pre/post natal care and birthing assistance, an extensive vaccination program to help eradicate the diseases that have ravaged the population. More.