BERHANE, English Course Coordinator for Axum

Dear All,

Above all let my Warm Greetings, Wishes and Appreciations reach you from the then "Abysinia" the present "thirteen Months of Sunshine Ethiopia".
Whole heartedly I am very much delighted to hear that the Abessinia project has come out with the developed outputs of our Traditional Painters work after months of devoted efforts of Lidwina and her colleagues so "Congratulations".

I am Berhane Tesfaye of your Axum English Course coordinator with a short and precise profile. By professional I am a Management and Public Administration graduate with a rich experience of Teaching, Administration and Project Coordinating. I have also successfully completed the course on "Structuring a Comprehensive Public Support Systems" for SMEs in Beersheba, Israel.

I have come to join the Abessinia project on the request of the diligent, inquisitive, and devotee Designer and Trainer Lidwina Dox whom I have met her while she was conducting a Training to our Traditional Painters in Addis in 2006. By then I was working as a coordinator and facilitator of the course as well as Regional Representative of Design Sa a Consulting Firm for Sustainable Global Development carrying on a consultancy and training services in particularly for the Artisians Component of the Ethiopian Cultural Heritage.

It was really a very interesting period for our beneficiaries and the Designer since has put an impact by itself in laying down a corner stone for the present relationships. This relationship with Lidwina has played a role in making the painters a part and parcel of the current project from which a lot of assistance has been generated, for instance the six months English Course offered and the Development works of the artists are exemplary of the supports made so far and I hope this will go on in the future too. Besides that the great respect and honors our painters have for Lidwina and the interest and fond she shows for their Philosophical works will keep them tied in a close relations which that in return contributes my contact to be firm with the project.

Therefore I would like to forward my Best and Warm Wishes for the success of the Project and have Appreciations for what has been done so far hoping that to be the first and not the last.
Best Regards All
Berhane Tesfaye Abraha Mobile, 251911099457 Home Tel,. 251115533492 P.O.Box, 40146 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Tel-Dan

By Fanny Awaliana Arendarczyk

The Abessinia Project is financed by Tel-Dan Co. Ltd., which is a company that manufactures various home decor products for wholesale and export mainly to North America and Europe. In its compound of 8000 sqm, more than 600 Tel-Dan's workers/staff and an international design team are working in Bangkok, Thailand. Tel-Dan has supplied well-known home-furnishing retailers such as Habitat, IKEA and Pier 1, as well as mass merchant like Tesco.

One of Tel-Dan's strength is being a great source of ideas, design and interpretation of trends. Tel-Dan's owner and managing director, Ami Zarchi, is always keen on exploring new sources of fresh ideas and creativity. He is enthusiastic of producing home decoration out of Ethiopian artworks to satisfy his company's customers. He also sees a capacity building opportunity for the Ethiopian artists, by linking them with an Asian manufacturer and Tel-Dan's world-wide customer platform.

Tel-Dan has a spacious showroom in its Bangkok compound that is tailor-made to enable its customers to plan product lines and and to imagine a complete retail environment, including packaging solutions, point-of-sales displays and, if requested, creation of entire Planograms. There's an in-house international design team to propose fresh ideas or to work on the customers'. The team consists of an American, an Austrian and a number of Thai textile designers, who are trend-sensitive and at the same time rich in characters.

The products that Tel-Dan manufactures include decorative cushions, bedding, kitchen & dining textiles, window panels, outdoor soft-furnishing, novelty pillows, gift items, textile storage and kids items.


A more detailed information about Tel-Dan is available in www.tel-dan.com. For further inquiries about Tel-Dan please contact abessinia@gmail.com.