By Wossen Mulatu
11 September 2015: On Ethiopian New Year’s Eve, Aster Aweke, one of Ethiopia’s greatest music icon, and UNICEF National Ambassador to Ethiopia, delivered a strong message on girls’ and women empowerment to thousands of fans gathered at her concert in Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa.
“My wish for the new year is for girls to succeed in their education and reach their full potential equally as boys,” said Aster during her performance. “All of you men have the responsibility to protect women from violence. Please do not standby and keep silent when you see women being abused and their rights violated because they are your mothers and your sisters and you should protect them!”
Her messages on girls’ empowerment comes at a right time when the Government of Ethiopia took a heroic step by making a ground-breaking commitment to end Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs) including child, early and forced marriage and Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) in the country by 2025. To this end, UNICEF and its partners are supporting the Government to improve the quality of lives of Ethiopian girls and women and, ultimately, to accelerate progress for the country at large. In addition, this feeds into the proposed Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, as part of the Post-2015 development agenda.
Since her appointment as a national ambassador in 2010, Aster has supported different UNICEF activities and campaigns that benefit the women and children of Ethiopia by participating in high-level meetings and campaigns.
