I Love Eri TV

ILoveEri, a multipurpose company, was first established in 2008 by Amaniël Hadgembes, a communication and media student of Eritrean descent in Holland. As the company grew, Babiël Tadesse, a fellow Eritrean, joined the movement and helped in its development with his multimedia skills.

ILoveEri eventually set up ILoveEri.com, a website aimed at creating a forum through which Eritrean youth in the diaspora could interact with each other.

"We wanted to send out a series of positive messages to our communities," says Amaniël. "Through the different media outlets we've established so far, including ILoveEriTV, we've been trying and succeeding in reaching young Eritreans in a positive way. We also serve as a platform for new emerging young Eritrean artists."

ILoveEri's maiden event was a sell-out affair and following on that succes, the team got down to planning the next step.

"Straight after the very first event, we launched our website," says Amaniël. We wanted to highlight the positive things that were happening in all Eritrean communities around the world as well as back home in Eritrea. We had grown so tired of negativity regarding our country and people in most of the mainstream media. We therefore decided to highlight the positives in order to empower the youth and rediscover our country together."

Currently, ILoveEri has four divisions which include ILoveEri.com (website), ILoveEri Wear, ILoveEri Event Organisation and ILoveEriTV. "Everything we do is driven by the LOVE we have for Eritrea," says Amaniël.

To date, the company has organised a number of events including a series of parties and the annual Copa Eritrea football tournament which aims to bring all Eritreans, and especially the youth together trough sport.

ILoveEri also helps and works together with different Eritrean organisations in the Eritrean community in Holland and other countries.

"We believe that this is the key to a succesful and better community," says Amaniël. "In the future, we want to keep playing a significant role in bringing awareness to Eritrean youth and try to find answers to questions that many of them may raise.

We're also working together with other organisers in order to take the ILoveEri Movement to different parts of Europe and eventually, other places. At the moment we're also looking to contribute in building a solid foundation aimed at improving sport in Eritrea."

During the short period that it has been around, ILoveEri has grown quite rapidly to become a household name not just in Holland, but also all over Europe and beyond.

"We hope to keep this up and bring our Eritrean brothers and sisters together in order to grow and have fun as a community," says Amaniël. "With our motto intact, we keep saying 'Eritrea Today, Tomorrow and Forever'."

www.ILoveEri.com
"Join The Movement"

Interview by ELEMmagazine visit them @ www.elemonline.com

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