The 2016 Bikila Award Winners

Sylvia Pankhurst was a vocal anti-Fascist activist during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Her anti-Fascist activities led her to take interest in Ethiopia. She saw that Ethiopia would be a victim of Italian Fascism and wrote extensively in defense of Ethiopia urging that the League of Nations should be stronger, should have teeth to establish proper sanctions that really would stop the aggression. She wanted to see the Suez Canal closed and wanted the sanctions to include petrol. Ms Pankhurst made several other exemplary contributions to Ethiopia including raising funds for Ethiopia’s first teaching hospital and writing extensively on Ethiopian art and culture. Her research was published as Ethiopia, a Cultural History.

Dr. Richard Pankhurst

Emulating his mother’s love for Ethiopia, Dr. Richard Pankhurst has become a renowned scholar whose longtime interest and career in Ethiopia is widely recognized in academic circles and Ethiopian society at large. Dr. Pankhurst advanced Ethiopian causes and worked tirelessly to remedy the international injustices committed against Ethiopia including putting pressure on the Italian government to return the Axum Obelisk stolen during the Fascist occupation which resulted in the return of the obelisk to Ethiopia in 2008. Similarly, Dr. Pankhurst is currently among a group of concerned professionals forming a national committee for the return of treasures looted by the British Expeditionary Force from Mekdella, Gonder in 1868.

Mrs. Rita Pankhurst:

After working for six years in the Public Division of the National Library of Ethiopia. Rita joined and later headed the University College of Addis Ababa Library. After its merger with other institutions to form the Haile Selassie I University, Rita was appointed the first University Librarian, (1964) and organized the main University Library in a new purpose-built John F. Kennedy Memorial Library. She has been closely involved in the work of the Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (SOFIES) and for many years was Chair of the Committee in charge of the Institute’s lecture series.

Dr. Alula Pankhurst:

Dr. Alula Pankhurst has twenty years of professional experience in Ethiopia working for a number of international donor and Ethiopian organisations, and researching poverty and related issues. He is a lead researcher of the Wellbeing Dynamics in Ethiopia longitudinal research project tracking community change. His other positions have included: Advisor, Wageningen University Disaster Studies, Linking Emergency Assistance with Food Security Project; Principal Investigator, World Values Survey Ethiopia; Anthropology team leader, Ethiopian Home Gardens project.

Dr. Alula Pankhurst is Young Lives Ethiopia Country Director, whose aim is to shed light on the drivers and impacts of child poverty, and generate evidence to help policymakers design programs that make a real difference to poor children and their families.

Bikila Award is honoured and congratulates The Pankhurst Family for being selected as the 2016 Bikila Lifetime Achievement Award winners, for their distinguished achievements and longstanding love of Ethiopia, for their exceptional and enduring contributions as professional and scholars to the study and preservation of Ethiopian history.

Alemtsehay Wedajo was Senior Actress of the renowned National Theatre and was named Leading actress by the Arts counsel of the ministry of culture. She brought to life many important historic and fictional characters including Empress Taytu, Portia in the Merchant of Venice, and Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Alemtsehay also played key role in the establishment of Children and Youth Theatre in Ethiopia overcoming stiff opposition from many angles. The Children and Youth theatre which was formed by Alemtsehay is the only theatre in Ethiopia where children learn the vocation and stage productions specifically designed for children.

After moving to the United States, Artist Alemtsehay established the Tayitu Cultural and Educational Center, the mission of which is to promote good citizenship through academic excellence and introduce Africa’s rich cultural heritage through literary presentations, poems, drama and artistic productions. For the last 15 years, the Center has held poetry nights on the last Friday of each month providing forum for writers, musicians, film makers, and visual artists to meet and share their work with audience coming from far and near. The Center also has annual tour program to the different states which is also accompanied by workshops.

Artist Alemtsehay is also widely admired for her writing, especially for her poetry that are deeply personal responses to turmoil and dislocation. She approaches familiar human themes from the perspective of Ethiopian’s cultural and emotional inheritance. She has written lyrics for many contemporary songs. The prolific artist has also directed and produced several plays in Ethiopia and the US.

Bikila Award congratulates Artist Alemtsehay Wedajo for being selected as the 2016 Bikila Professional Excellence Award winner for her distinguished achievement as an Actress, Director, Playwright, Poet, Leader and Mentor of the Arts.

Dr. Fikre Germa, a physician at Brantford General Hospital, in Brantford, Ontario, plays a key leadership role in advancing emergency medicine care and education in Canada, Ethiopia, across Africa and the Caribbean.

Fikre is founding member of the Ethiopian North American Health Professionals Association, which assists in improving health care standards, emergency care, and transfer of knowledge to Ethiopia. As an ENAHPA vice president, he helped coordinate groups of emergency physicians from Canada to develop emergency medicine in Ethiopia.

A life-long educator, DR. Fikre has trained medical students and residents across Canada. He was a coeditor of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM)  Hand book of Acute and Emergency Medicine that has been  distributed to hospitals and medical schools across Africa. His researches have been published in the African Journal of Emergency Medicine, Canadian Family Medicine, the International Journal Circumpolar Health as well as The Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine. DR. Fikre is a recipient of several awards including the fellowship designation by the College of Family Physicians of Canada (FCFP) and a certificate of appreciation from the Providence Centre for Humanity International for his “dedicated service and selfless service to humanity, bringing health and hope to these communities served in Ghana.”

Bikila Award congratulates Dr. Fikre Germa for being selected as the 2016 Bikila Professional Excellence Award winner for his distinguished achievement as a dedicated Physician and for playing key leadership role in advancing emergency medical care and education in Ethiopia and Africa.

Tegest Hailu, MD is a practicing physician and faculty member of the University of California at San Francisco - Fresno based in Fresno, CA. The significant contributions Dr Hailu has made towards improving the medical care and the lives of many groups in the greater Fresno community over the past two decades have been recognized in the form of several awards and recognitions over the years. She has served as an important medical resource for the Ethiopian community in Fresno. Dr Tegest Hailu has worked for the past 14 years to help the community of Jemedo, a remote mountain village in Welo province in Ethiopia, by facilitating the education of its boys and girls.

Dr. Tegest Hailu pursued her high school studies in Buffalo, N.Y. Which prepared her for the culture of inner city life in the US. She continued her academic studies and graduated from Canisius College with degrees in Biochemistry and French. In 1994 she graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with the Doctor of Medicine degree.

When Dr Tegest visited Jemedo, she found the schoolchildren learning, seated under the main village tree and in only one room school that had only been in existence for a few years. Jemedo was inaccessible with modern transportation and was without running water or electricity but its people welcomed Dr Tegest’s desire to be of help and a fruitful collaboration was born to provide education to the children at first. When Dr Tegest returned home to her family in Fresno, she set up the nonprofit International Society for Better Health Access - ISBHA to serve as the vehicle towards achieving these dreams. ISBHA’s second goal was to help establish hospice care in Ethiopia. Dr Tegest’s work with the community of Jemedo and their joint efforts over the years have resulted in the achievement of some of those early dreams. As a result hundreds of Jemedo students have now completed the8th grade, dozens the 12 grade and a few have completed their college education.

Bikila Award congratulates Dr. Tegest Hailu for being selected as the 2016 Bikila Community Service Excellence Award winner for her compassion and dedication as a practicing physician for underserviced populations in North America and promoting youth education and health care in Ethiopia.

Dr. Bitsuamlak is a Canada Research Chair in Wind Engineering and an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.

Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Dr. Bitsuamlak completed his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from Addis Ababa University in 1991. He earned a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India in 1998. He earned a PhD in Building Engineering in 2004 from Concordia University.

In 2004, Dr. Bitsuamlak joined RWDI (a leading wind engineering and building science consulting firm) located in Guelph Ontario as Senior Wind Engineer – a position he held until 2007. Dr. Bitsuamlak joined Florida International University (FIU) in Miami as an Assistant Professor. He made a lasting impact in hurricane-induced loss prevention by co-directing the creation of multi-million dollars hurricane testing facility named “Wall of Wind”. His former lab is now named a national laboratory by National Science Foundation in USA.

In 2009, he also won the Florida International University President’s Top Scholar of the Year award and in 2011 he was named “World ahead’ faculty. While at FIU, his research and lab also received multiple media coverage. In 2012, Dr. Bitsuamlak was recruited by the University of Western Ontario at the rank of Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Wind Engineering. Recently he is named Western’s site leader to Sharcnet (a large high performance computing center). The overall impact of Dr. Bitsuamlak’s research has been recognized by the competitive Early Researcher Award (ERA) by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation in 2013. The goal of ERA is to improve Ontario’s ability to attract and retain the best and brightest research talent.

Bikila Award congratulates Dr. Girma Bitsuamlak for being selected as the 2016 Bikila Professional Excellence Award winner for his distinguished achievement as a scholar and researcher in Wind Engineering and for mentoring of Ethiopian engineers in the field.

Since he arrived to Stratford, Ontario in 2011 Gezahgn Wordofa (Geza) has volunteered most of his waking life to becoming part of the community and helping others. In a short amount of time he has become a member of the Stratford Rotarians, the Stratford Area Chamber of Commerce and a founding member of Stratford Toastmasters.

He is often found volunteering at churches and with many non-profit groups including Salvation Army, House of Blessing, the Stratford Area World Aid (SAWA), and the Canadian Red Cross. He has been recognized many times in the local news for his efforts and achievements, and has become a household name for anyone doing humanitarian work in the area.

Bikila Award congratulates Dr. Gezahgn Wordofa for being selected as the 2016 Bikila Community Service Excellence Award winner for his community leadership and numerous volunteer services including helping immigrants to better integrate into Canadian mainstream society.