Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Amharic and English, with subtitles in Amharic, Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

HOST (IN AMHARIC): Enlightened viewers, welcome to another edition of Good People, Good Works on Supreme Master Television. Our program today is the first in a two-part series that features the noble Dr. Anteneh Roba, physician, humanitarian and co-founder of the International Fund for Africa (IFA), a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to bettering the lives of those in need in Africa, regardless of species.

Dr. Roba (m): The mission of International Fund for Africa is as best as we can to prevent, alleviate and abolish all suffering of both humans and non-humans. We started the organization towards the end of 2006. The reason IFA equally promotes the interests of both humans and animals stems from the founders’ deep, abiding belief in the interconnectedness of life.

The group operates on the principle of “ahimsa” or nonviolence and respect for all beings. The IFA has many projects encouraging constructive relations among humans and between humans and our animal co-inhabitants.

Dr. Roba (m): The main areas we work in are human health, animal welfare/rights and promoting veganism in Africa.

HOST: Dr. Roba is firmly committed to spreading the good news regarding the health benefits of the plant-based diet and its relation to kindness to animals.

Dr. Roba (m): In 1999 my cousin, who is now the vice president of the International Fund for Africa, asked me to keep her dog for her, because she had gotten this little dog and was keeping him in her apartment and the apartment building would not let her keep him. And she said, “Can you keep him until I move to another apartment so that I can keep him with me?” And I said, “Sure.”

Dr. Roba (m): I started falling in love with him. And I learned something about animals that I never knew before: that they’re wonderful beings, they are sentient beings and they give so much love. And so he started me on the road towards reconsidering my lifestyle, and especially my being a meat eater. And so I slowly started changing my diet.

Dr. Roba (m): I stopped eating meat, eventually eggs, dairy products, and finally fish. And about eight years ago I became vegan.

HOST: Dr. Roba, who was born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, travelled widely with his parents in Africa, Europe and the US as a boy, since his father was a career diplomat. He finished high school in his hometown, did undergraduate work in North Carolina, USA, and then went on to study medicine. He is currently an emergency-room physician in Houston, Texas, USA. During a visit to Ethiopia in 2003, Dr. Roba saw that the health needs of the disadvantaged were not being met, particularly in the area of hospital services for newly born babies.

Dr. Roba (m): So far in the human arena we’ve worked very diligently to bring equipment to hospitals in the capital city of Ethiopia. Most hospitals in Ethiopia do not have neonatal units; “neonate” meaning the first 30 days of life, the babies when they’re born if they’re sick, they’re supposed to go to a unit or a ward or facility where they can be taken care of. Until four years ago there was only one in the capital city that was basically functioning.

Dr. Roba (m): We hooked up with a very good doctor in Ethiopia who is a neonatologist. She specializes in taking care of babies in the first 30-days of life and we supported her. She had started a small unit in one of the hospitals and we started supporting her, bringing in equipment so that babies do not die of you know simple things like hypothermia, loss of temperature, and malnutrition and things like that. The first one we started was in a hospital called Yekatit 12, which is in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

HOST: IFA has helped to upgrade Yekatit 12 in numerous ways such as providing vital equipment for neonatal care like incubators, phototherapy devices, glucometers, and beds. For the neonatal staff at the hospital, which consists of 12 nurses and one doctor, the Fund has gifted pediatric stethoscopes, scrubs, jackets, protective eyewear, shoes, watches, and caps.

Dr. Roba (m): The facility had only one room, two beds and after three years working with the hospital and this doctor, we transformed that place from a one room, two bed facility, to a seven room, 30 bed facility and we even opened the first intensive neonatal unit in that hospital.

In fact, right now because of all the progress that we saw in starting this, the hospital itself was motivated and the government, the Ministry of Health is also helping to build one whole floor dedicated to the neonatal unit, and we have promised to help them provide equipment for which we’re trying to get funds.

Dr. Roba (m): Now we’ve also got involved with another hospital, called the Gandhi Memorial Hospital after the great Mahatma Gandhi. It’s a maternity hospital that never had a neonatology unit. Imagine a baby is born to a mother and if the baby is sick they have to literally pick up the baby and take the baby by foot or by taxi to the only other hospital that has a neonatology unit and a lot of the babies would die on their way.

In October of 2009 I went there and they had opened two rooms with basically a couple of beds and nothing else. And they asked, “Dr. Roba, please can you and your organization help us because a lot of organizations have come to Ethiopia and told us they’re going to help us but nobody has showed up.” And I said, “We’ll do the best we can, You know, funding is an issue.” But I said, “We’ll try.”

Dr. Roba (m): So I came back to the United States and we scrounged around to get funding and eventually, some of the doctors that I work with in the hospital helped me out and I put some money of my own and we bought the equipment and sent it back to Ethiopia. And the facility now has a full-blown unit and all the babies that are born do not have to go to another facility anymore.

Dr. Roba (m): Mortality has gone down from 30% to less than 5%, just from this action. The other hospital, when we first started, mortality was 17.5% or 17.8% down to 4% in three years after we got involved. So the…you know, the results have been phenomenal.

HOST: In a short time, Dr. Roba and the IFA have managed to bring about fantastic changes in neonatal care in Ethiopia’s capital, but their compassionate deeds don’t stop there. Their love extends to all of God’s great creations as they also work to bring comfort to the country’s vulnerable animal co-inhabitants.

Dr. Roba (m): We’ve been going to Ethiopia for many years and every time we see a lot of homeless dogs who are suffering, miserable, they get hit by cars, they are dragging their feet. You see them dying, some of them have babies that are drowning when the weather is bad and there’s rain. They can’t even pick their heads up and they drown on on the streets. So we approached the government and said, you know, “We can help you. Can we work together?” And they said, “We would love to get some help.”

So we came back to the United States, and we hooked up with the Best Friends Animal Society in Utah, and the Humane Society International, which is part of HSUS (Humane Society of the United States), and we told them, “Look, we need help, can you work with us? We don’t have money, but we are working with the government, and they are willing to work with us. Can we do something?” And they said, “Yes, we can help you.”

So we set up a one-year project, clears throat a pilot project to take a certain part of the city and… do vaccination, and spay and neuter. We plan to do about 1,200 dogs to show the government how it works. And we brought in vets and dogcatchers from India to train the Ethiopian vets. We trained them for about a month.

After that the project was continued for about a year, and we were able to show the government that this could happen. We just went back a couple of weeks ago, actually Gregory Castle from Best Friends Animal Society, who is the CEO and I went to Ethiopia. We sat down with the city officials, and even went up to the president of the country to see how we can actually expand this program.

And the government was very receptive, and Best Friends and HSUS is also going to help us to cover the whole city of Addis Ababa. There are four veterinary facilities. We are working on a proposal to provide not only equipment, but technical support and training to cover the whole city, which will be starting sometime in the future.

HOST: The International Fund for Africa is also looking out for the welfare of donkeys and horses in Ethiopia as many lead tremendously harsh lives, with constant heavy, laborious work being the norm for them. A common practice is to abandon the animals when they become old and not able to work at the same level as before.

Dr. Roba (m): We’re also working on opening a donkey-and-horse sanctuary in Southern Ethiopia. Ethiopia, by the way, has the second largest number of donkeys in the world, after China. China is number one at a 11 million and Ethiopia has five million. And imagine the difference between China and Ethiopia, as far as numbers.

But the donkeys in Ethiopia are suffering a lot, and the horses are also. We’re working with a veterinary school of medicine in Southern Ethiopia to start a very small horse-and-donkey sanctuary, so that we can take the horses and donkeys that are left to die and give them some support until the end of their life.

HOST: Please join us again next Sunday on Good People, Good Works, when we will continue our interview with Dr. Anteneh Roba and learn more about the International Fund for Africa’s praiseworthy programs.

For more details on the International Fund For Africa, please visit www.IFundAfrica.org or connect with the IFA on www.Facebook.com

OUTRO (IN AMHARIC): Amiable viewers, we appreciated your company on this week’s edition of Good People, Good Works. Coming up next is The World Around Us after Noteworthy News. May we endeavor to always clean and beautify our planet.

Today’s Good People, Good Works will be presented in Amharic and English, with subtitles in Amharic, Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

Dr. Roba (m): Human rights and animal rights, they are interconnected and if we don’t fight for animal rights, and human rights, then we haven’t done anything. We can’t ignore one and leave the other. They are both equally important.

HOST (IN AMHARIC): Greetings, friendly viewers, and welcome to Good People, Good Works on Supreme Master Television featuring the second and final installment of our program on the remarkable work of Dr. Anteneh Roba and the US-based non-profit group the International Fund for Africa or IFA.

The group operates on the principle of “ahimsa” or nonviolence and respect for all beings. The IFA has many projects encouraging constructive relations among humans and between humans and our animal co-inhabitants.

Last week we learned about IFA’s compassionate work, such as improving neonatal care and public health in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, organizing a spay and neuter program for stray dogs in the same city, and helping to set up a sanctuary for abandoned donkeys and horses in Southern Ethiopia.

This week we hear from Dr. Roba on how his group is spreading the eco-conscious message of veganism and the need for immediate action with regards to climate change in Africa.

Dr. Roba (m): My experience has been very powerful. I've gone to different parts of Africa and I've seen a lot of change, even in my own country. When I left Ethiopia, as a young person, almost close to 30 years (ago), Ethiopia was very lush. It was, you know, beautiful. There was a lot of vegetation. When I went back, certain parts of the country, there is no vegetation. There're a lot of problems with water shortages. The forests are gone and 60, 70 years ago, Ethiopia had 40% of its forests intact. Now it's less than three percent.

The Sahara (Desert) is expanding yearly, and it's affecting Ethiopia and other parts of Africa. The glaciers on Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro are drying up, and the rivers and lakes are drying up. The forests in West Africa almost don't exist. In the Congo, the forests are almost gone. Desertification is becoming an issue, and so yes, there is some serious, serious damage to the environment going on in Africa.

Dr. Roba (m): We need to focus on bringing awareness to the governments, to the communities, instead of pushing for you know, cattle to be, a means of survival for human beings. Because at the end of the day, having a lot of cattle is causing damage to the environment, which (means) eventually both humans and animals are going to lose out.

HOST: In Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa, livestock are used for bartering and are exploited for their meat and milk. The IFA is seeking to end these unsustainable practices to better public health, protect the fragile biosphere, and preserve precious animal lives.

Dr. Roba (m): So, there's a lot of importance attached to having animals in Africa, and it is an issue. But on the other hand, I think the way to handle that, or to deal with it, at least in my way of looking at it is, we can help people transition from meat and dairy-based foods to plant-based foods and make plant-based foods abundant enough to feed the population. Actually, it's a better way; instead of people keeping cattle for food and for bartering, they can start farms, and create their own collectives where they can survive on selling crops.

Dr. Roba (m): We can create that world if the governments, the communities, organizations, and NGOs (non-governmental organizations), everybody understands that a world where we don't use animals is the way to go. And a world where we can respect the ecosystems and preserve the ecosystems and actually improve the ecosystems is how we can deal with these issues.

HOST: The International Fund for Africa’s website has much useful information regarding the harms of livestock raising such as the troubling statistic from the landmark United Nations report “Livestock’s Long Shadow” that 30% of the Earth’s terrestrial surface is taken up by animal-agriculture related activities. The website also states, “Most of the world's crop production, which includes almost 40% of the grain produced, is fed to animals which then get slaughtered to be eaten by a relatively small number of humans who can afford meat.”

Dr. Roba (m): And, even the United Nations a couple of months ago, they came out and said, "That's the way to go." We have to create a vegan world in the future to stop hunger from becoming, you know, a big disaster, which it already is, but it's going to get worse if we don't do something about it.

Dr. Roba (m): What we've seen is an openness even on the governmental levels and on the NGOs levels, non-governmental organizations. People are beginning to realize that global warming is for real and it's affecting human beings. And like the World Watch Institute just came out saying that recently saying that 51% of global warming is caused by greenhouse-gas emissions caused by animals. That idea is beginning to sink in across Africa.

But it's admittedly not as fast as we would like it, but there is change, and we need to build on that. That's why organizations like ours, like the Supreme Master (Ching Hai International Association) and others have to get involved more and more in Africa to really drive in that message that we can’t do business as usual with

Dr. Roba (m): global warming breathing down our necks. You know, they’ve already said,

Dr. Roba (m): a two degrees Centigrade increase will affect 600-million people. Basically 600-million people will go hungry. So you cannot ignore that and something has to be done and we need to shift our way of thinking.

HOST: The International Fund for Africa is active in spreading the word about the numerous benefits of a vegan diet and is partnering with like-minded organizations in Africa in this endeavor.

Dr. Roba (m): First of all, we’re working with a couple of vegetarian societies. We’re working with the Vegetarian Society in Ghana. We’re working with the Vegan Society in Togo, and we were instrumental in starting the first Ethiopian Vegan Association in Addis Ababa.

And the surprising thing is the Ethiopian Vegan Association found out about us being involved with veganism through Supreme Master Television, that is seen worldwide, and they one day saw me on Supreme Master (Television) for five minutes and they said, “Oh, this man is in America, and he is Ethiopian and he is trying to promote veganism, so let’s contact him.” And they contacted me and we started talking and finally said, “We need to start a Vegan Society,” so we did.

And now, it has started in Ethiopia and actually we’re planning an event in the next couple of months to introduce ourselves to the city of Addis (Ababa), to politicians, to parliamentarians, and the public, and even have Ethiopian TV come and cover what we are going to be doing. We work with these organizations and we try to help them financially as best as we can.

The other thing we are doing is we are working with local NGOs in Ethiopia that promote plant-based diets, and we support them. They go out to the communities to teach people about focusing on the plant-based diet and are telling people about the the negative effects of meat consumption and dairy consumption in Africa. And so we are supporting these organizations.

HOST: What can we all do to address the challenge of climate change? Dr. Roba next offers his wisdom on the vegan solution and the power of the individual to further the cause of plant-based eating.

Dr. Roba (m): Well, my belief system is: one, change yourself. If you can change yourself, then that is a start. You know, people who understand the impact of global warming and the devastation it causes on the environment and how it is related to animal agriculture understand that, the first thing human beings can do is become vegan themselves. But apart from that, get involved; advocate for veganism.

Another thing that I love about what Supreme Master (Ching Hai) is doing and her followers are doing is they are opening restaurants. That is really important because it is one thing saying, “ Let’s be vegan! Let’s be vegan!” It is another thing opening a restaurant and saying, “Look, this is the food, good tasting, healthy food!”

And telling people that not only is it good for the environment, it is good for you, and it is good for your health. You won’t have to die of diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and all these things if you eat like this.

It’s, you know, change yourself, then change others by showing, by living, you know, by practicing what you preach and going out and doing it, and that is what Supreme Master’s followers are doing and I applaud them for doing that. And that is what we need to do and that is what our little organization is doing, is we’re saying, “We are vegans. We want you to go out and become vegans and help others.”

HOST: Dr. Roba now offers this final message to our global viewers.

Dr. Roba (m): The only thing I can say is if whoever feels passionate about the planet, about human health and animal suffering, the first and the foremost thing anybody can do is be vegan. Stop eating animals and that will help the environment. It will help their health and it will help the animals. And after that they can progress into doing other things.

Once you become vegan, your mind clears up and your spirits clear up. All that (bad) karmic, negative energy of being involved eating dead animals clears out of your system and then you start focusing, just like it happened to me, towards helping others and realizing that we have a beautiful planet that we need to respect, we need to take care of, that nurtures us and we cannot ignore her.

HOST: Dr. Anteneh Roba and International Fund for Africa volunteers, we would like to express our deep gratitude for the wonderful message of hope you are bringing to Ethiopia through the promotion of the vegan diet and your public health activities in Addis Ababa. May your elevated example soon encourage others to change to the compassionate plant-based lifestyle and spread love and light to all sentient beings on our magnificent planet.

For more details on the International Fund For Africa, please visit www.IFundAfrica.org or connect with the IFA on www.Facebook.com

OUTRO(IN AMHARIC): Pleasant viewers, we appreciated your company on this week’s edition of Good People, Good Works. Coming up next is The World Around Us after Noteworthy News. May all lives be filled with appreciation for all of God’s great creations.