Diaspora African Women’s Network

Dear Semhar,
First and foremost I would like to congratulate you for been honored as one of the Champions of Change by the White House for your dedication in uplifting African Diasporas through your work. As an Eritrean-American who have been following your noble works for Africa, I'm proud that you received the recognition you truly deserve.
DAWN, the organization you found and one you're actively working with, will undoubtedly have beneficial effects in many ways for the people of Africa, as is alluded on its mission. For that I wish you much success.
A few questiions and inputs are in order.
How is the organization funded to operate its work?
One of the objectives of DAWN is to help shape western foreign policy towards Africa that could help the continent move forward. I'm all for that. The question is what are the mechanisms with which your orgnization work to meet this objective? What can DAWN do to address the high level of corruption and poor governance that's consuming most African states, often with the full knowledge of the western governments? How can we genuinly expect Africa to advance politically, socially and economically when corrupted governments and dictators are getting away with impunity, fattening their Swiss accounts, engaging in gross human rights violations and breaking international laws? Here I defer in giving you specific examples affirmed that you have more extensive knowledge about African statehood than I do. Also, at the end of your letter you implicated that countries such as USA and England are beginning to listen to the concerns of the diaspora. In what way do western governemnt engage with Diasporas? Can you cite some examples and their outcomes, if any? I can give you a couple of examples in which the voices of the diaspora were completly ignored by the west (US). The first one was I believe in 2003 or 2004 when thousands of Eritrean-American diasporas flock to the White House asking for the implementetion of the EEBC ruling pertaining Eritrea-Ethiopia border conflict. The second one took place in February 22, 2010 when close to ten thousands Eritrean Diasporas (not counting those in Oakland) took it to the street in a freezing weather voicing their anger and expressing their dismay over the illegality and unjustifiable sanction against Eritrea on a basis of false and fabricated "terror" allegations. In both cases, in which thousands of petitions were handed out to US White House and State Department officials, the American administration did not even bother acknowledging our presence let alone listen to our voices and concerns.
With such kind of western attitude DAWN is likely to face an uphill battle in meeting its missions, which I think are noble I fully and whole heartedly support.

Thank you,
Amanuel