By Yohannes Mesfin and Ahmed Abdullahi Farah
Have you ever wondered how your next door neighbor is in another country? And how maybe the two countries’ have a bitter past that prevents you from interacting at full neighborly capacity with one another?
Trading across borders
You cannot trade with one another; trade barriers will make it harder when you do you will be engaged in the illegal smuggling of goods. You cannot be able to attend a private ceremony because you will be crossing illegally in another country’s territory. But, you want to all this because your survival instinct and social obligations dictates you to. Won’t that make you wonder why we have borders in the first place?
Ethio-Somalia relationship
Take the case of Somalia and Ethiopia: The two countries share a long history that goes back for thousands of years despite the fact that their current relationship is dictated by events that dates only few decades which take the form of open conflict and diplomatic spat.
People to people relationship
Have you ever wondered how your next door neighbor is in another country? And how maybe the two countries’ have a bitter past that prevents you from interacting at full neighborly capacity with one another?
Trading across borders
You cannot trade with one another; trade barriers will make it harder when you do you will be engaged in the illegal smuggling of goods. You cannot be able to attend a private ceremony because you will be crossing illegally in another country’s territory. But, you want to all this because your survival instinct and social obligations dictates you to. Won’t that make you wonder why we have borders in the first place?
Ethio-Somalia relationship
Take the case of Somalia and Ethiopia: The two countries share a long history that goes back for thousands of years despite the fact that their current relationship is dictated by events that dates only few decades which take the form of open conflict and diplomatic spat.
People to people relationship
However, the relationship between people living in the border areas remained fairly simple ignoring the big politics that is going on the back of closed doors. To this day people in the border areas trade with each other and engage in their social commitments with one another. However, for people who are only informed through the media which is devoid of any deeper social understanding and first hand information the image of our next door neighbors remains to be that of hostility.
GREHAYA
For the first time, like minded individuals from the different countries of the horn of Africa came together came together with the hope of dispelling the predicament that we find ourselves in as citizens of these countries with deep patriotic feeling to our counties’ but even deeper understanding of our common denominator which is belonging to humanity.
Our vision
We understood that we needed to work together to solve our common problems and needed no one to assist us in that hence, enter GREHAYA. As one can understand our first encounter of one another was filled with suspicion only to discover that we are into something big with the possibility of changing the livelihood of so many of our fellow human beings living in our region.
The future is bright
This understanding of one another and our championing of a common cause that transcended our existence as an individual of a certain citizenship transformed us into universal citizens thereby rendering the existence of border as being only fictional.
GREHAYA
For the first time, like minded individuals from the different countries of the horn of Africa came together came together with the hope of dispelling the predicament that we find ourselves in as citizens of these countries with deep patriotic feeling to our counties’ but even deeper understanding of our common denominator which is belonging to humanity.
Our vision
We understood that we needed to work together to solve our common problems and needed no one to assist us in that hence, enter GREHAYA. As one can understand our first encounter of one another was filled with suspicion only to discover that we are into something big with the possibility of changing the livelihood of so many of our fellow human beings living in our region.
The future is bright
This understanding of one another and our championing of a common cause that transcended our existence as an individual of a certain citizenship transformed us into universal citizens thereby rendering the existence of border as being only fictional.
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