When Fendika was on tour in the USA in September 2018, Melaku met Professor Ron Aminzade of the University of Minnesota. The hour-long conversation began because Ron had seen and loved Fendika’s performance a few days before; and it ended with both Melaku and Ron excited about the vision of 1000 books in Fendika, through Books for Africa, an American non-profit organization.

Fast forward two years, in early September 2020, Fendika received a generous donation of 1000+ books on arts and culture from Books for Africa. Dreams do come true! In the middle of the pandemic that closed the Center for half a year, Fendika took a financial risk to build a small library room on its premise, to give a beautiful home to the books, and to provide an inviting environment for readers. Melaku is thrilled about this new addition to Fendika. Our small library is the first and only library in the Kazanchis neighborhood, and the only library focused on arts and culture in the city of Addis Ababa.

Fendika’s library has already excited a lot of curious minds. High school students from Lebawi International Academy have put their knowledge to use and digitally catalogued the books.

But Fendika’s entire operation is under financial strain due to the COVID-19 shutdown for 7 months, during which Fendika had no business revenue. Although our door re-opened to the public on October 16th, income through performance events is not as robust as it used to be, because the pandemic is not yet over.

Some of our friends have offered financial support for the library building. For this particular project, our gratitude goes to:

Ron Aminzade

Books for Africa

Daniel Crofts and Betsy Crofts

Suzanne Lehmann

Cindy Norton

Brikti Hiwet

Mary Hearst

Katherine Barrett

We hope this list of supporters grow. Together, we will build a future of understanding, peace, and love!

If you would like to make a donation and become part of the community — Friends of Fendika Library, you can donate right here at the bottom of this page. Thank you!

Update: Books for Africa is planning to ship another thousand books to Fendika in 2021! Our library is growing, so is our hope! Thank you!

Photo credits: Melaku Belay, Haymanot Honelgne, and Tamrat Gezahegne