“The foundation she laid helped us restructure the organization”

Behailu Shiferaw

I have known Baukje Kleinbekman when she worked with me in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We were both working at a local media-based NGO called Ethiopian Volunteer Media Professionals against AIDS – her as marketing and development advisor and also as the only Fundraiser for our organizations, and me as the Chief Editor of the youth newspaper and later as the Acting Director of the organization.

I remember Baukje as a willing, able and energetic colleague to work with. While, using her remarkable fundraising and proposal writing skills, she helped us increase the number of our copies from a mere 11,000 to 50,000 copies amounting to the largest published paper in the country, her role in putting our organization in the map was also outstanding. Because of her hard work and skills, more people and, importantly, more donors came to know our organization. The foundation she laid while she was working with us helped us when we, after she left, restructured the organization as Lambadina Institute Health and Communication assuming similar structure as our counterparts in South Africa – Soul City Institute Health and Development Communication.

Behailu Shiferaw
Chief Editor
Lambadina Youth Newspaper

Source: LinkedIn reference