First Lady Erdoğan, who is in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa with President Erdoğan, met with First Lady Roman Tesfaye of Ethiopia. Following their meeting, First Lady Erdoğan visited the National Museum of Ethiopia and met with the representatives of a local women’s NGO at Addis Ababa University.
First Lady Emine Erdoğan who is in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Ababa with President Erdoğan, met with First Lady Roman Tesfaye of Ethiopia and then visited the National Museum of Ethiopia on the first day of their 4 day Africa tour.
VISIT TO THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ETHIOPIA
First Lady Erdoğan received information about 4 million-years-old Lucy, the oldest human skeleton in the world. After her visit to the museum, which also contains an art collection about Ethiopian history, First Lady Erdoğan visited an NGO, which works for the welfare of the AIDS-infected women under the aegis of the First Lady of Ethiopia. First Lady Erdoğan received information about the struggle against HIV virus and AIDS, which are common in Ethiopia. First Lady Erdoğan, who had the opportunity to know the organizations that help isolated and desperate women hold onto life with their handicraft, visited the textile workshop of the center and bought hand-crafted objects, made by the women working to make end meets and provide for their children.
“THE PROBLEMS CONCERNING WOMEN, CHILDREN AND EDUCATION ARE SIMILAR IN DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES”
After these visits, First Lady Erdoğan met with the representatives of a local women’s NGO at Addis Ababa University. Prominent entrepreneur women of Ethiopia attended to the round table meeting and briefed the guests about their fields. In her speech at the meeting moderated by First Lady Roman Tesfaye of Ethiopia, First Lady Erdoğan drew attention to the similarity of the problems concerning women, children and education in developed and developing countries, and expressed that mutually exchanging ideas about common problems will yield global benefits. First Lady Erdoğan pointed out the works of the Turkish State and NGOs in the fields Ethiopia needs.
“TURKEY HAS NEVER APPROACHED AFRICA WITH A SELF-SERVING, COLONIALIST MENTALITY”
Stating that Turkey has never approached Africa with a self-serving, colonialist mentality, and has invested to build water wells, to support orphans and to open health facilities, First Lady Erdoğan underscored that all these investments have been carried out with humanitarian purposes. Expressing that a versatile approach is necessary to fight against the common problems concerning woman health, First Lady Erdoğan stated that problematic religious perceptions, and strict traditional conducts sometimes cause health problems, threatening the mind-body integrity of women, thus societies need a radical mentality revolution. First Lady Erdoğan emphasized that Ethiopians, an agricultural society, must appreciate the value of the chemically unpolluted lands of Ethiopia, study and research natural agriculture and conveys the environmental awareness to the next generations.
One of the representatives, who spoke at the meeting, stated that they follow the example of Turkey in their struggle against tobacco use in Ethiopia. The representative of an NGO, which works to fight cancer by preventing tobacco use, said that they follow the success of Turkey against tobacco use and stated that the expression ‘to smoke like a Turk’ is now history.
Following the round table meeting at the university, First Lady Erdoğan presented the university library a book set of books published in English by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
First Lady Erdoğan will continue to meet with representatives of NGOs and pay visits to orphanages during the Africa tour.