Afaan Oromo: Africa's hidden treasure...
As a little girl raised in Australia, Toltu Tufa's father taught her a language no body else seemed to know. As she grew older, she questioned why she needed to learn to read and write from her fathers old books; every other language she learnt was filled with endless resources and beautiful characters. She felt intrigue when her father's friends excitedly shared rare books, stories and dictionaries in the same 'secret' language. While she thought the books looked boring, it was the stories and explanations of each book that captivated her interest in the 'secret' language, was called Afaan Oromo.
As a teenager, Toltu chose to share her captivating stories at weekend schools with children from other Oromo families. She began to realise over 40 million people shared the same language in East Africa. She also learned that tools and resources produced in Afaan Oromo was considered rare because of its painful history. The Oromo people were banned by the Ethiopian government from speaking their native language for over 100 years, until 1991.
Since then, Toltu’s search for easily accessible and beautifully designed resources for Oromo children continued to be a tricky experience. During her search, Toltu came across Oromo families around the world who shared the same struggle. So she decided to pool her money and create proud and beautiful representation of the Oromo heritage she was taught. Toltu planned to encourage bold, new ways of story telling and sharing her history and heritage with the world.
And that is how Afaan Publications was born.
ABOUT TOLTU
As the founder of Afaan Publications, Toltu Tufa does more than create books. With over fifteen years of community and educational experience, Toltu is obsessed with finding new ways to create effective and vibrant communities. As an award winning educator, mother, publisher, thought leader and Psychologist, Toltu has worked across a wide range of industries from sales and education to health and the justice system. Regardless of the hijab she is wearing, her goal is simple: to empower thought leaders and organisations to differentiate themselves and to drive measurable results by creating strategies and roadmaps to ‘get things done’.
ABOUT OROMIA
An introduction the land and people who speak Afaan Oromo
THE CAMPAIGN RESULTS
A snapshot of campaign income....and expenses!
