Ye Jimma Lidjoch” & friends of Jimma!

Warmest greeting to you from our beloved city, Jimma & us!

Jimma city, which is close to two centuries old, was the centre of trade and other major economic activities up until recent times. However, since mid-1970s, it started losing its vibrant economic engagements and, subsequently, the socio-economic network and infrastructure crumbled and poverty became rampant in the city.

It is unfortunate and sad that Jimma in today’s Ethiopia is one of the least developed and deteriorating cities, while we all know that Jimma has been one of the richest, harmonious, beautiful, fast developing and the fourth best cities of the contry.

It is with this background that the community took its own initiative under the name “Hedassie Jimma”, “renaissance of Jimma” to overcome some of the major bottlenecks to development and progress of the city and its environs. It is a public initiative with courage, enthusiasm and full participation of the communities, which aims at the renaissance of Jimma and its surroundings. However, because of the magnitude of the problems, it is recognized that the efforts of the community alone are not sufficient to tackle them. Therefore, it is necessary that we ALL “Ye Jimma Lidjoch” and friends of Jimma join hearts, minds, hands and talent with the Jimma community in order to make this noble initiative a reality.

Can we further our unity and rebuild our beloved town?

Can we bring back the Jimma that we knew once?

Can we bring a change?

“YES, we can!”

The Jimma community is coming together and says in one voice, “enough is enough! Jimma will revive by the efforts of its children”, “we will rebuild Jimma and will remake it prosperous and a city of love, harmony and also most attractive for investment and as commercial centre of the South West Ethiopia”.

In line with the above as fund raising initiative the Jimma city administration has organized a Telethon event that will take place on Sunday, July 12, 2009, starting at 1:00PM at Sheraton Addis in the presence of H.E. Girma Wolde Giorgis, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. It will be attended by government’s officials, foreign governments representatives and heads of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and respected/important figures of the society, celebrities, members of the religious, business & academic communities.

The Telethon event will be directly transmitted through the Ethiopian Television (ETV) and can be accessible via the global satellite TV networks. It can be also followed through http://www.ourjimma.com, a web page dedicated to the initiative

Therefore, we call upon ALL “Ye Jimma Lidjoch” and friends of Jimma to stand up and rebuild Jimma that once had been the epicentre of progress in Ethiopia. We urge you all to support this initiative in coordinating fund raising events in your current country of residence.

Once again, we thank you very much and appeal to you to continue your efforts for the betterment of Jimma in all directions.

Our slogans are:

“Jimma is the city of LOVE”

“We all LOVE Jimma”

“Jimma is our IDENTITY”

“We will support Jimma to REVIVE”

Together we can make it happen!

Sincerely yours,

Ahmed Aba Gisa , Mayor of Jimma

Aba Jihad Aba Koyas, Chairman, Public Initiative Committee for Fund Raising for Jimma

Dr Wubshet Mamo, Chairman, Diaspora Initiative for Jimma

For financial contributions:

Account Name: “Jimma development ”Ye Jimma lemat”

Bank name & Address: Dashen Bank, Ledeta branch, Addis Ababa

Account No.: 0022523121001

Confirmation Contact Address: ahmedgisa@yahoo.com