Shalom,  My name is Hadas Malada, I am a medical student in my 6th year at Ben-Gurion University in Beer-Sheva.

I must admit that at first I didn't quite know what to share with you this morning. Then I decided that the best way to present my message might be to tell you about my wedding. I even brought some pictures.

I married Yonatan three weeks ago. The bond between us and between our families is, in my view, a very good example of successful integration of our community in Israeli society. It shows how love can overshadow the external limits put up by society. Yonatan and I come from very different backgrounds and places, but still in our wedding there was such a beautiful and natural integration between all the guests. Everybody just enjoyed sharing their various way of celebrating. It created such a great sense of happiness that evening that we just felt embraced with warmth and love.

An especially moving moment in the wedding was when Yonatan's father, a former "Mossad" worker, greeted my father and told everyone how without knowing each other the two of them worked from both sides to bring the Jews of Ethiopia to Israel. Our wedding was the closing of a big circle.

I made "Aliyah" to Israel with my family in 1988 on a small operation led by my father and his brother, one of several operations they led. We left our village at night with little food and water and walked for 6 weeks to Sudan. I was 3 then. We stayed there in a refugee camp while my father was imprisoned and tortured by the Sudanese. Only after 10 months we were rescued in an American-Israeli operation and brought to Israel by plane.

During all that time many suffered and died from hunger and disease, I also became sick with Malaria and another disease which almost caused my death. It took me 6 months of treatment in Israel to totally heal. My mother tells me since then that god saved me so that I could help others .That probably influenced me when I decided to study medicine.

When we arrived to Israel My parents had to make great efforts in order to bridge the huge gap between the primitive village life they had in Ethiopia and the modern technological life in Israel. They didn’t know the language or the culture and had to take hard physical work to support the family. Despite all the difficulties they always encouraged us to succeed and to integrate in society.  They talked with us a lot about the importance of excelling.  They were always involved in our lives and interested in our studies. I am so grateful to them for what they did for us. It still overwhelms me today how they managed to overcome the many challenges and economic difficulties they faced and educated 11 successful children.

My bond with the Ethiopian National Project started in the 2nd year of my studies when I was contacted by the ENP and granted a Yanoff-Master Ethiopian-Israeli Healthcare Fellowship, from donors at the Lehigh Valley and Fayetteville North Carolina Federations. From you.  Since then, like the four other Ethiopian-Israeli medical students, I am very personally accompanied by ENP to ensure that I successfully graduate.

ENP, with your support, provides many other Ethiopian students and also helps in many other fields promoting the full integration of our community in the society. It give scholastic assistance to youth in high schools, helps high-achievers to reach their potential, gives alcohol and drug abuse workshops for teens and their parents, helps teenagers to prepare for IDF service and initiates many other actions in the community.

What I like in ENP is that it concentrates on empowering local communities and supports their independent advancement and self-leading. I believe that this way of working is a central factor in the power of ENP to create a true change.

I am very proud to be part of this effort and I hope that maybe through my life I can pave a path towards a better tomorrow.

But I know, and I know that you do to, that giving back is not just something for the future—it is for today.  So today, while I am studying, I make it a point to give back in the best way I can, today.  I volunteer for Magen David Adom, I teach sexual education and awareness, I play with abandoned Bedouin children who are hospitalized at Soroka hopital, and I even teach anatomy to visiting American students at Ben Gurion University.

Giving back, and making a difference as much as one is able- that is something we have in common.  We share that.  We are one and the same.   

Your unending support of me, my peers and my community is helping us all make Israel the place my family and so many others have dreamed of reaching.

Thank you for all you have done and continue to do every step of the way.