On Veganism & Animal Rights

This is my story as a vegan:  I'm a 28 year old man (Mesfin) from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,  the founder and director of a grassroots advocacy and action group Vegan Ethiopia. I have been a vegetarian for one year before I became vegan for about five years now.

Sustaining great minds like Dr. Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey as my all time idols ever since my childhood, I loved animals and all about them so much and wanted to be a zoologist/wildlife conservationist from the beginning at my young age but ended up or became misled by the prevailing conditions, to be studying animal agriculture in college which was the only field of study dealing with animals at the time in my country Ethiopia. This was despite his usual questions about the abuse committed to my loved ones – all animals especially those being killed or worse slaughtered at home level as the habit of sacrificing animals persists in the society I grew up driven from the Old Testament biblical conceptions of The Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and Muslims as well. Thus I was by then unwittingly brainwashed by these social customs of my country in general that animals’ gruesome misfortune was a matter of their destined fate and yet animal farming being so close to animals meant the only way of showing love which in fact was the opposite as I learned later in his life.

Soon after the completion of my college courses, while I was trying to find financial support from various international organisations dealing with helping and protecting animals for my intentions to further learn on zoology or wildlife conservation which was derived from my ever existing desire of working on that field, I happened to read from various sources relating to animal welfare & rights works to then be awakened to all the facts about the amount of violence being committed to animals and the vegan lifestyle.

As a result I finally renounced my education after adopting and learning about the vegan diet in terms of its multifaceted aspects and to now be playing a role in among the first ever vegan awakening in my country starting from my age of 23 years. The case of my experience of being misled to find myself in the wrong direction I believe, should be an issue to be addressed sooner or later and it is one of my intentions/ambitions to set up “Animal’s Friends Club” network at elementary and junior schools of the capital city Addis Ababa to start with, to raise awareness on the fact that people, especially young children who naturally tend to show further love and affection to animals, should learn to condemn the act of violence being carried out in the name of our dietary needs and beyond, at early stage and help them lead their life in the right direction as they grow up.

Ethiopia as every nation in the world is in the early stage for this awakening to make progressive impacts with some appalling stories to be told. I will as a result continue sharing my endeavors as an animal rights activist and the animals’ story here on my blog and on an my upcoming blog/website for Vegan Ethiopia where you can follow on twitter for now via ( https://twitter.com/veganethiopia )@VeganEthiopia.