a my name is valerie wonder and i work at the seattle public library and i'm the outreach services manager and i've been working with ethiopia youth media for many years maybe seven geary's on a variety of different kinds of programs and also just as partners in the community who's trying to support each other and connect each other with different sorts of resources and  opportunities some of the early projects there i worked with a sigh were east african college fair that's one of the places that i first met him and became aware of the work he's doing with use the library had partnered with a few other organizations to bring about thirty different colleges to franklin high school and we had hundreds of east african  lee's come and of course society was there to interview those of us who were involved in abuse a different community organizations and just cover the event in general and he also brought a bunch of youth which is a huge value that he brings to our programs he's able to really draw people and i think around that time we also work together and bringing mally escott i ask that i'm here from chicago now he's educator and an inspirational speaker who's been here a few times to talk with us and we brought him back as the keynote for their refugee conference that we did in two thousand i believe and the library sponsored mallees program but if it were just status we would have a handful of youth arrive at the event we don't promoting things through our usual channels we struggle sometimes to get there right audience the core audience that we're trying to reach better say  ethiopia youth media is able to reach out and able to bring in and exactly the students and youth that we're trying to reach so we were able to provide the program he was able to generate the  youth there was an opportunity for a bunch of them to interview melanie and it was i think a really successful partnership that helped us bring strong message to youth and give them an opportunity to use the skills that he's been working with them and allowed us to sort of be relevant as the library in these kids lives so it's really pleased  him so my question for you was like what what inspired you to pursue your dream and just not give up with all the obstacles getting away well what motivated you just kept you going for things that motivate me the most escape people lived in refugee camps people came to this country went through all sorts of crazy stuff you know people work jobs making five six dollars an hour training toilets today you and i have a chance to go to school that's a sacrifice to go into it so if you know that that's where you come from where people have sacrificed for you and i just have a chance to work hard go to school to develop ourselves that tells us that we can't give up because that's just too much sacrifice has been made and plus when you look at all the people who are not going to get that opportunity so for me when the hardest time for me was my brother passed away when i was high school and that look in my mom and knowing that if i gave up what's her life going to be  father's they're going to be like that that was a huge motivator for me and then plus i see even when i think about my own brother twelve that he passed away and i think would have made him sadder more sad than if i would have given up at that point that happen and you know like your dad and mom stuff you know i mean like your dad you know he acted way and that you know some people in america might not being that style so i'm like that what kept you going even though they didn't know exactly how to do it and you know it's this is a great question of kids from east africa go through that where they're trying to fit in maybe their parents don't understand american culture so i feel embarrassed you don't know what's going on and you know for me even when i felt their sometimes i never forgot that i wouldn't even be alive without them i would not and that's what all you've got to remember and i sure have person that you might be embarrassed of a little bit guess what they went through a lot of crazy stuff for you to have a chance to live and that's and  for me it was obvious you know i live in a refugee camp mom and dad i know that they love me and it actually was hard for me to be ashamed of somebody who i knew had done so much for me that made me feel that even i think most kids do feel that conflict in their heart and they know that they shouldn't feel bad because look what their parents are going through right now but they can a cat help you because you're a kid that's what you feel when your kid is just being part of being a kid right you feel that way and that's where i think i think that's one of the opportunities for you as a young person to mature faster than most people when you get to the point you can say hey i have enough courage of self confidence and i thought i think keep me down and i'm a brace and love my family today i'm not going to back in it was two thousand and seven and every year at the library chooses one author and one book to highlight and that year we chose as did in our mingus to ethiopian immigrant from d c and we brought him out and brought him to different schools and he did a number of public programs and assign a large number of students to interview him i think he was on the t v station several times and it was just great again a neat opportunity to have somebody that the youth could look up to and for us to connect him this sort of really wonderful young immigrant author with a community of people who would see him as a role model sell the house pretty neat and what i learned there are this is not just doing youth development and youth skill building but he's also really documenting what happens in his community what happens in your community in the ethiopian community in the east african community in the larger seattle community in a way that's really kind of a kindle where we as librarians sort of see our role as arc of this of of the community at the library we have a large section dedicated to seattle and washington history and so we spend a lot of time with a lot of archivists and people who are doing record keeping in capturing the history of that culture of the community and clearly that's a lot of what this team is doing the archive that been has created through these programs is really amazing and will i think be incredibly valuable moving forward as in the future people really look at how this community came to seattle and care and how it's impacted seattle and how the youth have developed and so i really value that and i'm excited that we've had opportunities to work together specifically on the course of doing that it was a form about the seahawks and in the course of doing that they needed to learn the skills and learn about the opportunities to do research that the library provides so library staff were able to work with the to train them on using our services and discover information but hopefully get some skills that will help them moving forward in high school and college and then when they created the documentary we were able to air it at the library which is pretty neat special for us and eventually it will go hopefully into permanent collection there their element of where it makes me really excited about this organization is the fact that it's ok it's based around sharing information with the community through that t v show so  so not only are we able to provide the youth with skills that are going to help them and college and career not only her we're able to document what's happening in the community but it's also sharing what all of that information with the general public all the time so i know when i get together a say and talk about something exciting that's coming up at the library he's going to share that information that's very important to this organization so the resources that are available are me  public and that that information is shared across the community and and i know that the information i share is getting out there because frequently i run into people and they say oh i saw you on t and i learned about this program which is always sort of a little bit embarrassing but also really i'm really grateful that he's able to help me connect the community that way and share  this year is is it's an exciting year not only is it the library our libraries ten year anniversary of but it's also the ten year anniversary i feel you media so it's sort of special for both of us and we are so really want to support him and this organization and celebrate the fact that they too have been around ten years building community and we hope you'll support them as well  know they're having an event on saturday march twenty ninth from three to six pm at the ethiopian community of seattle that set eat three to three rainier avenue south that i hope everyone will come out and celebrate the great work that they've been doing so thank you i'm excited to report that did now mingus too is coming back to seattle he was the us or the beautiful things that heaven bears which was very special book here in two thousand and seven we have a lot of events around having to now here and he'll be back next week on march twenty fifth it'll be at the central library one thousand fourth avenue from seven to eight thirty pm and he'll be there questions he'll be selling his books and he's just a really inspirational speaker and a fantastic author s l i hope that people will come it would be really wonderful to have the community show up for him bring your youth bring your teenager is your middle schoolers so they can see this really inspirational figure who is his of a fairly young man you i don't know he's in his thirty's probably or is younger than me and he's now written three novels and had a lot of a claim and he's just he's really wonderful role model and just a fantastic speaker and if you like to read i highly recommend his work so bring your kids hi i'm david keyes i'm the community technology manager for the city of seattle in the department of information technology and i've had the opportunity to work with m m r t i for for all ten of its years and in fact even before that when boonie in the ethiopian community mutual association started their computer lab many fourteen years ago i think to begin to get the message out to begin to train community members and m m r t i has been a great organization and a really valuable one and we're really glad at the city of seattle and the department of information technology to have a chance to have partnered with m m r to see them grow and get them to this point ten years later and still growing and still building community i think that m r t i has been a great a great leader in the community in bringing the voice of the east african community sometimes to the city government bringing the community together to be able to hear from each other it's we can't take it for granted that places like  training kids and adults how to do video and and getting the messages out we can't take it for granted that they'll be here so it does require us to support it to keep it going you know it's without it i think we don't necessarily get a chance to see what are people in the east african community having to say about taxicabs about health about youth violence and and the programs here bring that to life so it brings it to life or for us at the city for other community members and i think it's also having people stories told in people's issues come to light and being able to see that  brings community together and it lets people feel like they're more a part of the community and when they get to hear and see each other's stories and each other's concerns and then the training programs  just been great i think the m m r t i brings together they teach kids how to work together they teach them video skills they teach them story writing skills and so that that i think it gives them a greater sense of success a greater sense of their voice being strong and gives them skills and working together collaborating gives them technical skills and i know they get a chance to not only do the camera work but to do sound to create graphics and that's all part of things that industry needs it's part of of what brings the stories to life and so i look forward  to continuing our partnership with them r t i i'm really glad that the community is stepping forward to support them and keeping these important community media centers going in these important training programs going it certainly enables the city of seattle to be able to distribute information that we have about essential services utility discounts opportunities for lower cost cable for low income  cost internet for low income residents how to get health information online you know m m r t i as an important media center to do is for us to distribute also into the community so find some r t i keep it up thanks to all those who have contributed produce programmes just made things behind the scenes work and let's keep going